I thought that I had seen the last of the noble and plentiful hawk moths, with a few tattered arrivals a couple of weeks ago, but this morning's trap furnished this very spick-and-span Poplar, presumably second generation? Btw, just briefly straying on to butterflies, I had a wonderful morning among the Adonis and Chalkhill Blues at Yoesden Bank in the Chilterns on Tuesday - a top Bank Holiday outing, maybe? Martin Wainwright, Thrupp, Oxon
Like you Martin, I had a very trim Poplar last night. 2-3 weeks ago I had one with very few scales on its wings, indeed, without its unique shape I might have struggled to ID it.
ReplyDeleteAlan
Hi Martin,
ReplyDeleteThe second brood of Poplar Hawk normally goes on until the final week of August locally (my latest date is 2nd September). I've had occasional August records for Elephant Hawk and the latest of those was 29th August 2015, while Small Elephant Hawk is double-brooded on the Continent if not in the UK and I've had that in August very occasionally (21st/24th August 2010, 21st August 2017), so there's a very slim chance your Poplar may not be the last!