Wearing of the green

I daringly put the trap outside the garden last night, on a stretch of rough-mown grass with a footpath running on the far side. The overwhelmingly dominant colour in these new surroundings was green. So it proved to be among this morning's moths as well.

To my great delight, a Large Emerald was perched on the transparent trap cover when I arrived, bleary-eyed, at 5.30am, an early hour because I didn't want to alarm anyone out for a pre-breakfast dog walk. The lovely moth's slumbering presence raised the issue of whether any previous arrivals had adopted this vulnerable resting place only to be snatched by birds for their breakfast before my usual, rather later arrival.

One disadvantage of getting up this early, though, is that the light isn't yet good enough for unblurred photographs and the ones I took on the spot were sadly wobbly. Luckily, the Emerald - the largest and most vivid of its tribe in the UK - stayed put while I went through the eggboxes and allowed me a photo-session, including transfer to a 'Woodstock Hollyhock' as they are known round here.

Also in the trap, and in tune with today's fashionable colour, was this little Marbled Green above, modest in size but one of the most beautifully patterned of all our island's moths. It has stiff competition, mind, from its close relative the Marbled Beauty, one of which also graced the eggboxes this morning - picture below.