Spectacles

A spectacle moth caterpillar on nettles in the garden. The adults are regular in the trap

May-June and August-September

Large ranunculus is always nice to see

Setaceous hebrew characters are common and have been on the wing for months. The rusty background made me look at this one with fresh eyes.

Yellow-line quaker, common and quite plain but still nice

This sallow below is a bit faded but the colours are autumnal

Sept 18th in the garden

Not sure about this one.

Alucita hexadactyla has showed up again, the first for ages

Monopis obviella or its bewilderingly close relative

Spruce carpet, I think!

Caloptilia stigmatella, a little gem

A mish-mash of garden finds

I thought this might be Endothenia quadrimaculana but not sure

I found this larva in the 'meadow' in the front garden. It was on bird's foot trefoil and I saw it eat red clover leaf as well. It ate the hairs and then chewed a hole through the leaf. I think it is marbled clover.

This is Mompha subbistrigella (I think). We have had others in the last few weeks but not so well marked so were not sure what they were

The old lady that graced our porch a few days ago

Recent caterpillars

A bit different from the adult! Sycamore larva feeding in the garden on field maple in the hedge.

A green silverlines, feeding on beech in the Brecks - looks as though it's just changed instars.

Broom moth feeding on bracken in the Brecks.

Silver Y found feeding on outdoor tomato plants.

We planted a wild flower and grass meadow in May this year, and have seen common blues egglaying on birds foot trefoil. We found this tiny first instar this week - the size of the print from the newspaper under the red clover leaf gives an idea of scale.

Holly blue feeding on ivy in the garden, attended by an ant.

August 26th in the garden

I have been looking around the garden for larvae and found a few common species:

This is possibly Herald - not as shown in Porter but from the Observer's book it looks good

A trio of Bright line brown eyes

A Flame and spent fuel?

A green Dot

A developing Buff ermine I think - there were several out and about

This orange sallow was a new species for the garden in last night's trap - not a clue where the nearest lime trees are.

More garden moths

Commas were coming to the container I store wine ropes in so I poured some 'wine' onto the ground. Males and females sampled the delights, not just of the sugary mix as I recently found....

. ....comma larva on nearby hop we planted this year

A Dog's tooth - not as common as last year in our garden at least

A yellow shell that sat still. It is on a pepper leaf

A male Orange swift

A female Orange swift

This Rusty dot pearl was the first this year, feeding on Hemp agrimony

Aug 15th

This marbled clover was a nice treat from last night's trap

A new tortrix for us - Dichrorampha acuminatana (BF1279).

A rare moth for Cambs

Marsh oblique-barred - not a moth you would expect to find in your Cambridgeshire garden. It came to an MV light trap.