Shandy Hall Moths
6 September 2026
Two Final New Micromoths
Shandy Hall has another Plume Moth! And it’s not just any Plume: Amblyptilia acanthadactyla is commonly known as the Beautiful Plume, which is very fitting for its precise geometric pattern, finely shaped wings and intense gaze. This one allowed only a brief look before it darted off into the orchard garden. The Plume Moths of […]
7 August 2026
Three More New Micromoths
At first glance, the Clover Case-bearer (Coleophora alcyonipennella) most resembles an elongated piece of dirt. It’s a tiny smidge of a moth, with a wing span of only 10.5 to 12.5 mm, and appears an unremarkable dark grey color until it moves into the sun and lights up with bronze–flecked emerald iridescence. The species name […]
7 August 2026
Three Majestic New Micromoths
Micromoths aren’t usually the first thing to catch my eye when opening up the moth trap. Even when brightly colored, they are overshadowed by their larger and flashier kin, and it’s often hard to get a proper look at them before they dart away. I thought this Catoptria pinella was just another specimen of the […]
27 July 2026
Invasion of the Beet-Army Worms
Spodoptera exigua is a moth that goes by many names: the Beet-Army Worm in its native Asia, the Small Mottled Willow Moth in the British Isles, the Asparagus Fern Caterpillar in its larval form and, to anyone growing produce, one of the world’s most ruthless agricultural pests. You could easily miss it at first glance: […]
21 July 2026
Sarah Gillespie’s Mezzotint Moths
As habitat loss, pesticides and climate change encroach on the livelihoods of all our non-human neighbors, it becomes more important than ever to preserve them in both their physical forms and in the forms of painting and printmaking. Both encourage our attention to these creatures, and to the fact that they could soon only exist in prints unless our attention is accompanied by action.
21 July 2026
A Visit From the Privet Hawk-Moth
Looking into the moth trap this week, my attention was almost immediately caught by what seemed to be a small torpedo covered in fur. Growing up to 6 cm long and with a 9-12 cm wingspan, the Privet Hawk-Moth (Sphinx ligustri) cuts a very imposing figure. On its thorax was a large brown and white […]
16 July 2026
The Splendid Scarlet Tiger
The morning of our next moth trap dawned cold, gray, and extremely windy. I was almost having trouble standing upright and I couldn’t imagine how our Lepidoptera were able to fly on such papery wings. I guess they’re stronger than they look! Luckily, the dismal weather didn’t deter a colorful new moth species: the Scarlet […]
11 July 2026
An Uncertainty of Species
Two English moths are said to resemble each other more than most: the Rustic (Hoplodrina blanda) and the Uncertain (Hoplodrina alsines). The latter is even named after this confusion! For the past three traps, we’ve had plenty of the slightly rougher and more robust Uncertain, but this week I finally found what looks like the […]
6 July 2026
A New Micro-moth that Inhabits Where Others Do Not
Moths often make their homes in unexpected places. Some are so specialized they are only found where their host plants grow, and are diminishing as the particular habitats and environmental conditions they evolved with disappear. Others are doing the opposite: as human activity and industrialization alter the vegetation and vary temperatures, they’re increasing in number […]
6 July 2026
Brown Moths and ‘Binsey Poplars’
In ‘Binsley Poplars,’ Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poetic eulogy for a row of felled aspens in Oxford, he describes the trees’ lovely habit of catching sunlight: ‘My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled,/quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun,/all felled, felled, are all felled.’ Though home to no aspens, Shandy Hall has two of the […]
29 June 2026
SHANDY HALL MOTH LIST to August 2025 (alphabetical with links)
A list of the moths caught and recorded at Shandy Hall up to August 2025 can be found here. Each species name links to our posts about each moth. Thanks to Sophia Hernandez (UPenn intern 2025) for updating and preparing this list in alphabetical order from the list originally made by Autumn Cortright in 2023. […]
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 […]
Recent Moths
- Two Final New Micromoths
- Three More New Micromoths
- Three Majestic New Micromoths
- Invasion of the Beet-Army Worms
- Sarah Gillespie’s Mezzotint Moths
- A Visit From the Privet Hawk-Moth
- The Splendid Scarlet Tiger
- An Uncertainty of Species
- A New Micro-moth that Inhabits Where Others Do Not
- Brown Moths and ‘Binsey Poplars’
- SHANDY HALL MOTH LIST to August 2025 (alphabetical with links)
- Rise of the AI Naturalist
