A nice a relaxing start to the morning going through the mothtrap before work. It was a reasonable haul of 28 moths of ten species. This included a reappearance of the recently mentioned Brindled Beauty Lycia hirtaria, and a couple of new species for the year.
The first of these was the wonderfully furry Muslin Moth Diaphora mendica. This species is sexually dimorphic, the males (such as this one) being a wonderfully soft brown colour and the females being white. Curiously, I have only ever caught males in the garden, though these are one of my absolutes favourites among the spring moths.
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| Muslin Moth Diaphora mendica |
Another new species for the year was this Broom Moth Ceramica pisi, making a slightly early appearance for the year. This moth will be around until the beginning of August, and occurs in reasonable numbers. The yellowish patch where the forewings meet is a really good pointer to this species.As the name suggests, the larvae feed on Broom Cytisus scoparius, but also use Bracken Pteridium aquilinum and a range of other trees and plants.
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| Broom Moth Ceramica pisi |
I managed to get out in the garden in my lunch break, and I noticed this insect crawling along the front wall underneath some forget-me-not (Myosotis sp.). Funnily enough this is a Forget-me-not Shieldbug Sehirus luctuosus, an unobtrusive and probably very overlooked bug.
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| Forget-me-not Shieldbug Sehirus luctuosus |
The day was finished off nicely by this Common Lizard Zootoca vivipara basking in the sunshine on the wall at the rear of the garden.
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| Common Lizard Zootoca vivipara |
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