Northern Drab is a smart southerner for Berkshire

What do you call a moth that is most frequent in southern England and Wales, and is a rather stylish mix of dove grey and charcoal? Northern Drab of course! I really don't know how it acquired its name, but in Berkshire it is a very uncommon moth, and before last night there had only been seven records of seven individual moths in the county this century.

Paul Black has now doubled that total in a single night! The photo shows the seven Northern Drabs he found while trapping near Leckhampstead on 31 March. Really pleasing to see the moth in these numbers, which hopefully indicate a strong breeding population in the area.