Hummingbird Hawk-Moth

As many of you will know Bryony is most definitely not a moth person yet I have her to thank for the subject of this post. We were heading out in the car yesterday when she spotted something larger hovering at the bottom of the drive. Her initial thought was a large insect and it wasn't until I took a closer look that I realised it was a Hummingbird Hawk-Moth (Macroglossum stellatarum).

I've never actually seen one before, although I think one put in a brief appearance at my sister-in-laws wedding which I saw as a shape flying away. Fortunately they are kind of hard to confuse with anything else.

After a few photos I thought I'd try a video to show you just why it's called a hummingbird hawk-moth. Unfortunately the camera was playing up (it's working fine now so I'm assuming operator error) and it kept stopping after recording just a second or so; the longest useful clip contained just 14 frames shot at 25 frames per second!

Rather than showing the raw video I've cropped and processed it (a complex procedue that itself can and will fill a technical blog post at some point) to produce an animated GIF that loops around to give you an idea of how it behaves.

I saw it again, briefly, this morning in the back garden but by the time I grabbed the camera it had gone. Hopefully it will be back and I'll get some better photos and video.

Up North

I was outside doing some gardening this afternoon when I came across this moth, which I'm fairly certain I haven't seen in the garden before. I also had no idea what the moth was so I had to look it up.

Given the number of books in our house you shouldn't be surprised to find that I actually have two moth books; a photographic guide by Chris Manley and an illustrated one by Waring, Townsend and Lewington. While the illustrated one contains more textual information I find the photographic one easier to hunt through, so that was where I started.

It didn't take me too long to identify the moth as a Sallow (or in Latin Xanthia icteritia) the only problem is that the photographic guide suggests that common throughout Britain during September and October. Now I know the weather has been confusing the wildlife this year but we aren't even half way through August yet.

Fortunately the more detailed, illustrated guide came to the rescue. It says that there is one generation a year which flies September and October in the south and August and September in the north. So I'm guessing Penistone is in the north; thank goodness for that!

Crocallis Elinguaria

I don't tend to go out looking for moths at night, not because I wouldn't enjoy it but because it would probably not go down well with Bryony who really doesn't like moths at all. This means that I really don't know how many different species we get in the garden but this Scalloped Oak (Crocallis Elinguaria) that was hiding by the bins the other week is one I haven't seen in the garden before.

Having done a little gardening yesterday I can also say with some confidence that we will again have lots of Cinnabar moths next year as there are very hungry caterpillars everywhere.

By the way I'm not sure why I started using the Latin names of the moths for the post titles but if it is annoying people let me know and I'll switch back to their more common names.

Phragmatobia Fuliginosa

Another day, another Latin post title! We spent an hour or so in the garden yesterday afternoon during the only time of the loooong weekend when it wasn't raining. Given that we weren't out for very long we actually got quite a bit done.

While gardening we saw at least three more Cinnabar moths and I also saw a species of moth, Ruby Tiger (Phragmatobia Fuliginosa), that I don't think I've ever seen before, and is certainly a new species for the garden.

As you can see from the photo on the left it was sunning itself on the lawn. While I could see that there was definitely a bright red underwing it wasn't until I tried to move it off the lawn (so as not to accidentally stand on it) that I saw just how red it's body is. Unfortunately I didn't get to see it fly or open it's wings, maybe next time.

Tyria Jacobaeae

Some of you may remember that last year I blogged about the very hungry caterpillars which were taking over the garden. They were the caterpillars of the Cinnabar or Tyria Jacobaeae moth. Last year I only saw one moth throughout the whole summer, but my assumption was, given the number of caterpillars, that this year I would see more. Being day flying moths they are much easier to spot and identify than many other moths and so far in six days I've seen five moths flitting around the garden.

I Collected Dead Things

In August last year I blogged about some pictures I'd seen in a hotel room that were made from moth and butterfly wings. In the comments to that post I mentioned that as a child I used to collect moths and butterflies and that they were pinned and labelled in old soap boxes in my parents house. I also promised that at some point I'd do a post about the collection.

Now I can't remember when I first started the collection, although I do know the lid decoration came quite a bit later when I used the collection to gain my Collectors badge in the Cub Scouts.

Now the lid should help explain the title of this post; I only ever collected specimens which I found dead. I would never have (and still wouldn't) consider killing a moth or a butterfly to add it to a collection. Not that I've add to the collection in a number of years, mostly as the boxes have been in my parents loft as Bryony won't let me have them in the house (she likes butterflies but hates moths, even if they are dead), but also as it's a long time since I've actually seen a dead moth or butterfly.

Now I know there are plenty more people, like Bryony, that don't like moths and/or butterflies so for the first time on this blog I'm going to make you click through to the rest of this post so you only see the photos if you want to (although if you are reading this on the post page then the link will be missing and that whole sentence won't make much sense, but nevermind).

Read more »

Hortus Lepidopterans

Okay so the Latin title might not be linguistically correct, but it has a better feel to it than "Garden Moths and Butterflies" which is what this post is all about.

Ever since we bought our house we have been slowly working on transforming the square lawn, which takes up all the flat area of the rear garden, into something more interesting with flowers and shrubs etc. Last year we used a whole bunch of bricks to mark out where we wanted the borders and a pond to be. Unfortunately we haven't had the time to actually do all the work yet.

The back left corner of the garden will eventually hold the pond and a bit of a bog garden as well as a small patio and a bench. Currently though, we have simply let this corner go wild to produce an interesting habitat for good old fashioned British wildlife. This means lots of tall grass, ragwort, dock and a whole bunch of other plants. One side effect of this is that the number of species of moths and butterflies we are seeing in the garden is increasing.

So far this year I've managed to identify and photograph two new species of moth and a butterfly.

From left to right we have:

Tyria jacobaeae

A day flying moth more commonly referred to as a Cinnabar. This is likely to have been attracted to the garden by the ragwort growing wild in what will eventually be a pond as this is the favourite food of it's larval form.

Polyommatus icarus

Last year we actually saw quite a few blue butterflies flitting around the garden. Unfortunately they either flew over the fence or were eaten by the Robins before we had a chance to identify them. This year, however, I finally found one sunning itself in the border and it sat still long enough for me to identify it as a Common Blue. It's a shame I didn't manage a photo of the bright blue upper wing surfaces but all the identifying characteristics are actually in the photo.

Diachrysia chrysitis f. aurea

I found this Burnished Brass moth in the herb border today while I was mowing the lawn. It was sitting in the marjoram which isn't really surprising given that my moth book lists marjoram as one of the larval food plants.

So I'm sorry if any of my neighbors think that the garden looks a little untidy, it will improve slowly, but until we have the time I'd prefer it to be a haven for British wildlife then a boring lawn.

Hole-in-the-Wall

This is the third, and final, post about our recent trip to Herefordshire. On the Sunday morning we drove south from Fownhope and parked by the river just north of the small hamlet of Hole-in-the-Wall (I wonder if it has anything to do with the book/film Stardust?). We walked along the road and by the river and saw a number of interesting things; damsel flies, buzzards, sheep, mayflies, mistletoe. Unfortunately I failed to get photos (good or otherwise) of most of the things we saw.

The one exception was this Scarlet Tiger moth which sat perfectly still while I shoved a camera right up to it -- the macro mode on the camera focuses well at just a couple of centimeters.

I've no idea how many species of birds and insects we saw over the two days but I'm guessing it was quite a lot and certainly helped to make it a memorable weekend.

Broadmoor Common

Over the weekend, whilst staying at The Bowens in Fownhope, we did a number of short walks and took an awful lot of photos (616 to be precise -- or, in old money, just over 17 rolls of 36 exposure 35mm film). I thought that rather than writing one long post I'd do a number of shorter posts one for each of the places we visited.

On the Saturday morning we set out in the cars to visit Wessington Pasture. Unfortunately we missed the turning (it looked like the entrance to a farm) and ended up at Broadmoor Common instead. According to the information board the common represents a fine example of a flower-rich ancient grassland. The abundance of wild flowers makes it an ideal habitat for moths and butterflies and they didn't disappoint.

As we stepped out of the car I got flown at by a Ringlet butterfly which was considerate enough to then land on some brambles right next to the car and in an ideal place for a photograph. Of course I don't really need to go all the way to Herefordshire to see Ringlets; we had some in the garden yesterday, well we did until the Robin ate one! Just as I was finishing photographing the Ringlet there was a cry from the other side of the car park as my mother had spotted something much more interesting, a Marbled White.

I've never seen a Marbled White before and neither had Bryony. I guess I shouldn't have been overly surprised by their presence. There was a photo of one on the information board and my butterfly book states that the unmistakable Marbled White is a lovely butterfly of unimproved flowery grassland, which seems to match the description of the common on the board. Unfortunately they don't seem to like sitting still, rather they flit from flower to flower annoyingly fast for someone who is trying to take their photograph. In fact it wasn't until we were nearly ready to leave that I finally got a decent photo.

There were other butterflies flitting around (definitely a Small Tortoiseshell) but I didn't get any photographs. I did, however, manage to photograph a day flying moth, specifically a six spot Burnet moth. This sat quite still on a thistle for quite a while allowing us all to take as many photos as we wanted. It still hadn't really moved when we decided to walk a little further up the road.

Silver Y Moth on Lavender

We get lots of wildlife in the garden, and for today's post I thought I'd go with a moth photo. Just outside the kitchen window there is a large lavender plant which at around dusk is covered in Silver Y moths. Taking photos of them is actually quite difficult as they don't stay still for very long, the plant tends to sway around, and dusk doesn't give the best light.


I've tried to take photos recently and ended up with every one of them blurry or out of focus so I'm having to use one that I took in July last year instead.

For those interested in Latin names then the Silver Y moth is called Autographa gamma. I guess this is because it looks like someone has autographed each wing of the moth with the lowercase version of the Greek letter gamma, γ.