Last night's garden totals here at
Westcott, Bucks were 186 moths of 58 species, at last somewhere near where they should be at this time of year. Most were species that have already been seen but new for the year list were
Caloptilia syringella,
Hedya nubiferana,
Epiblema trimaculana,
Hypsopygia costalis, Sloe Pug, Lime-speck Pug, Miller & Small Dotted Buff.
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| Sloe Pug, Westcott 11th June |
More interesting to me was one of the four Small Elephant Hawk-moths which visited. The same individual had attended the trap on the 8th and was, as usual, released over a mile away, but still managed to find its way back to the garden. I know this because I recognised the strange yellow growths coming out of the centre of its eyes. Does anyone know what might have caused this?
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| Small Elephant Hawk-moth, Westcott 11th June |
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| Small Elephant Hawk-moth, Westcott 11th June |
Dave Wilton
I don't think they're growths, Dave - more likely some sort of sticky pollen-packages acquired as it visited a flower of some sort.
ReplyDeleteAndy.
That was my first thought too, Andy, but it seems a bit odd to me that they should become glued to the centre of the eye but nowhere else.
ReplyDeleteIt does look very strange, but i agree with Andy - they look like pollen from a plant.
ReplyDeleteGreat photo - they look like orchid pollinia to me. I've found Silver Y and Beautiful Golden Y with them recently as well. Pretty amazing.
ReplyDeleteI wonder which one? One of the Butterfly orchids would seem very appropriate, the correct colour and I've noticed rather more of them this year than usual!
ReplyDeleteMeasure the distance from the nectary of the candidate flower to its ripe anthers and compare to the distance from the tip of the proboscis to the eyes of a small elephant hawkmoth. Simple (!!). The distance will be quite 'deliberate' and should place the transferred pollen on the ripe stigma of a flower on another individual plant. Just in case you have nothing else to do!
DeleteAndy.