Shandy Hall Moths
11 August 2025
Rise of the AI Naturalist
Flipping through a bulky moth field guide book can be extremely intimidating. Opening up a trap full of hundreds of similar-looking insects even more so. While I may have embellished my feelings about my first moth trap in an earlier blog, I’ll come clean now and say that frustration was the overwhelming sensation once I […]
8 August 2025
Best Moths for a Haunted Abbey
A short walk from Shandy Hall looms the Gothic ruins of Byland Abbey, a site I frequently explore in the evenings after things wrap up here. If I sit long enough in the meadows between the medieval stone walls, I often see moths begin to flutter as the sun dips behind the Hambleton Hills. A […]
3 August 2025
The Real and Fake Deaths of Moths
Every time we peer into our trap I’m overcome with a feeling I can only liken to opening up a rare box of chocolates or trading cards. Left alone with the moths in the shade of the crisp Yorkshire morning air, I’m both delighted and overwhelmingly grateful for the opportunity to handle such wonderful little […]
24 July 2025
The Colonizers of Yorkshire
Each summer, the mothscape over Yorkshire shifts in subtle ways. Some of these changes are down to better luck or keener eyes, but others hint at something larger: the quiet, ongoing reshaping of our ecosystems. As temperatures rise, many moth species once confined to southern England are steadily making their way north. It’s not just […]
12 July 2025
Glamour in the Dark: Two Newcomers Arrive at Shandy Hall
When I moved to Shandy Hall for my summer internship, I imagined something quiet, bookish, maybe a few dusky moths fluttering lazily around old lamps. What I didn’t expect was to be flung headfirst into a Gatsby-esque whirlwind of creatures in velvet and brocade, each more eccentric and dazzling than the last. If this summer’s […]
13 September 2023
25 July 2023 – Collective Noun for Hawkmoths
Single-dotted Wave (Idaea dimidiata) The initially inconspicuous Single-dotted Wave (Idaea dimidiata) has unexpectedly become one of my favorite moths, on account of their grace, beauty, and seemingly humble personality. I often find them perched vertically on the walls of the cottage, clinging on to the curtains, or, as in this case, blending into the pattern […]
15 August 2023
MOTH LIST to August 2023 with links
A list of moths found at Shandy Hall to August 2023 can be found here, and each name links to our posts about each moth. Our thanks to Autumn Cortright, our 2023 intern from UPenn, for helping to prepare this list. If you want to search for a particular moth, you can also use the […]
11 August 2023
28 July 2023 – TRIPLE New Species Alert!
Among the hundreds of moths in the trap this morning, we found a tiny Acleris holmiana, a rosy Endotricha flammealis, and a pearly Anania lancealis. Acleris holmiana, sometimes called White-triangle Button or Golden Leaf-roller, is a micro-moth from the Tortricidae family. It might have gone undetected in the Shandy Hall gardens for so long because […]
25 July 2023
18 July 2023 – A Golden…Plusia!
I’ve got a Golden… Plusia! Shandy Hall has been graced by a new species! The Golden Plusia (Polychrysia moneta) is a macromoth belonging to the Noctuidae family and the Plusiinae subfamily. Though this invasive moth had colonized most of England by the late 19th century, its numbers have dwindled in the north since the 1950s. […]
25 July 2023
13 July 2023 – Arts and Sciences
The trap this morning was predominantly ‘Common’, with 57 Common Rustics and 28 Common Footmans making an appearance.The Heart and Darts were as populous as usual, numbering 28 as well (although they seem to be getting significantly more worn and lethargic).The Large Yellow Underwings’ reign of terror continues. With every egg carton I removed from […]
16 July 2023
10 July 2023 – Rise of the Yellow Underwings
There was a time, earlier in the year, when the appearance of a Yellow Underwing in the trap was scarce, but no longer. Now the various Yellow Underwings have made their presence ubiquitous: They seem to be always lurking in the deepest recesses of the trap’s egg cartons, hidden in the bark of a rotting […]
13 July 2023
4 July 2023 – Cold-weather Catch
The moths in the trap this morning were of a rather homogenous variety. Because the weather has been unusually windy and cold, only the toughest moths dare to fly. Dark Arches, Heart-and-Darts, various Wainscots and a few Poplar Hawk-moths were the most common by far. There were hardly any micro-moths at all: Only a few […]
Recent Moths
- Rise of the AI Naturalist
- Best Moths for a Haunted Abbey
- The Real and Fake Deaths of Moths
- The Colonizers of Yorkshire
- Glamour in the Dark: Two Newcomers Arrive at Shandy Hall
- 25 July 2023 – Collective Noun for Hawkmoths
- MOTH LIST to August 2023 with links
- 28 July 2023 – TRIPLE New Species Alert!
- 18 July 2023 – A Golden…Plusia!
- 13 July 2023 – Arts and Sciences
- 10 July 2023 – Rise of the Yellow Underwings
- 4 July 2023 – Cold-weather Catch
