Saturday 11 September 2010

Closing a loophole


This will be of interest only to moth enthusiasts, probably, but I've had a puzzling experience with Svensson's Copper Underwings. There were three in the trap the night before last and all of them lacked the loophole, or eyelet mark which in my experience this moth usually has. Here's one of mine, above, and left, the more usual type (whose colouring is a bit misleading, incidentally. They are more grey than brown.)
Rain has limited trapping lately, along with a distinguished guest - Sir Simon Jenkins of the Guardian and the National Trust, whom I didn't want to blind or keep awake. The lamp tends to floodlight our spare room, and also to activate a set of luminous stick-on features of the solar system on the ceiling, which date from previous occupation by one of our sons. So here's a picture of a lacewing which called by last week; beautifully delicate among the pole-axed, snoozing grey and brown moths.

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