14 December 2013

13 December 2013 – Old Year’s Final Post

Male and female Winter Moth (Operophtera brumata)

Each night I have searched the trunks of the trees in the garden in the hope of finding the wingless female Winter moth.  Males of the species have settled on the porch door and the kitchen window, with their wings closed over their abdomens like cobweb-coloured butterflies.  They move slightly in the breeze, tacking like little toy boats as they try to maintain their grip on the wood.  Last night, coming back from the east of the county, there were moths aplenty in the headlight glare.  Not strong fliers and more plentiful in the dips in the road where the trees were close to the tarmac.  Could they be Winter moths?  Collecting the camera, I drove back to the spot where there had been half-a-dozen or so flutterers, and parked.  With the headlights off it was black.  Ten yards from the road the torch picked out a gate-post and there they were -dozens of Winter Moths clinging to the post and to the trunks of the trees and branches – anywhere that would give them purchase.  But all males. Finally I found a female.

Male and female Winter Moth (Operophtera brumata)

Balancing the torch and the camera the images above record the sighting.  

Gazing before and behind like Janus, the end of 2013 is represented by the Winter Moth.