29 June 2013

29 June 2013 – Good Humour and Moths?

Everyone at Shandy Hall has been hustling and bustling about in preparation for the opening of the exhibition “The Good Humour Club” tomorrow. Patrick and I will be doing a moth trap tonight as well for anyone who might be interested in seeing a sample of Shandy Hall’s moth species. We’ve been averaging around 70 moths a night for the past week so we hope we’ll get a good selection for tomorrow. For more information about events happening at Shandy Hall, you can visit https://www.laurencesternetrust.org.uk/exhibitions-events.php. If anyone has any humourous moth jokes, or any good jokes really, we’d love to hear them @LSterneTrust.

Spruce Carpet (Thera britannica)

The Spruce Carpet (Thera britannica) is a new find for us and the only one of its kind that we’ve seen so far. The larvae feed on spruce and Douglas fir trees, hence the name Spruce Carpet. Oddly enough, we don’t have any spruce or Douglas fir in the garden, though it may be possible that someone in town has one as a decorative piece. The Spruce Carpet’s scientific name doesn’t do much to describe it. Thera is an island in the Aegean Sea with no relation to the moth what-so-ever while britannica merely tells us that it is a member of the genus Thera that occurs in Britain. Our species list is now at 268.

Pupating Yellow-tail (Euproctis similis) Larva

On another note, one of our Yellow-tail caterpillars is pupating! This picture was taken about two days after it started to weave its cocoon. The other five caterpillars have gotten decently large as well. They will probably soon follow suit.

– Post by Jane Wu