Sunday, 13 May 2018

All hail!

I've waited a while before my first post (or two) of the year, but can't resist posting this beauty which showed up in my garden trap in Wolvercote, Oxfordshire, on 10th May, as one of only eight individuals which featured: the first adult Emperor Moth I've ever seen. I saw a caterpillar some time in the 1980s in the Blackdown Hills, Somerset, and had assumed there was no prospect of one in lowland Oxfordshire, but there it was: absolutely gorgeous!

Emperor Moth, 10th May 2018

Emperor Moth, 10th May 2018

Emperor Moth, 10th May 2018
Prior to that, 7th May was by some way the best night of the year so far, with at least 27 species and 50+ individuals in the traps, including numerous NFY: White-pinion Spotted (a rarity here), Least Black Arches, Poplar Hawkmoth, Lesser Swallow Prominent and Puss Moth (not really NFY, there was one on the 5th, too) among them.

Least Black Arches, 7th May 2018

Lesser Swallow Prominent, 7th May 2018

Puss Moth, 7th May 2018

White-pinion Spotted, 7th May 2018
Steve Goddard

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