Shandy Hall Moths
2 October 2014
2 October 2014 – Mystery Moth & National Poetry Day
Pinion-streaked Snout (Schrankia costaestrigalis) A mystery moth both scarce and local. What is the mystery? No-one knows anything about the life-cycle of the Pinion-streaked Snout. It is seen near fens and marshy meadows, perhaps often overlooked, and has only been recorded in the adult (imago) state in the wild. The larvae have been reared in […]
1 October 2014
1 October 2014 – Overlooked but not Forgotten
Nutmeg (Dicestra trifolii) At the end of July – think back to the summer for a moment – a large number of moths were trapped and identified in Coxwold and in York. This one was temporarily forgotten. Our UPenn intern, Bowen Chang, was stumped (he thought it might be Grey Arches) and I was stumped […]
29 September 2014
29 September 2014 – Virginia Woolf the Lantern Bearer.
Red Underwing (Catocala nupta) This is a near perfect specimen of a Red Underwing (Catocala nupta), a moth I have been hoping to see for a number of years. Common in Nottinghamshire when I was young, I have only seen one other here in the last five years. I read that it tends to be […]
23 September 2014
23 September 2014 – The Greek χῖ
Narrow-winged Grey (Eudonia angustea) Fore wings narrow, elongated, ashy-brown, with darker clouds and three whitish streaks, -the first near the base, broadly edged on both sides with brown; the second, strongly incurved beyond the middle (and between these three indistinct dusky marks, the outer one somewhat resembling the Greek chi, placed on a dusky space); the […]
19 September 2014
19 September 2014 – The Fields are Wearing Clear
Pale Mottled Willow (Caradrina clavipalpis) The weather has changed. Yesterday evening was warm and the relative increase of species to be found in the trap is encouraging. More moths in the headlights on the drive back from the station. Bats, a fox, little owl and barn owl all to be seen on the six-mile country […]
15 September 2014
14 September 2014 – Moth Progress
Mouse Moth (Amphipyra tragopoginis) We are seen as being a bit soft at Shandy Hall – we use humane mouse-traps. The old house is regarded as a welcome place to hide by shrews, wood mice and house mice and they are happy to inhabit the roof-space or the outbuildings. Fortunately the traps are generally successful […]
6 September 2014
6 September 2014 – Notch-wing Button
Notch-wing Button (Acleris emargana) Acleris emargana had made itself virtually invisible and I was fortunate to see it as it clung to the wooden frame. The deep notch in its wings is not shown as clearly as it could be, but it is a restless moth and not easy to photograph. The scientific name ‘the unallotted […]
4 September 2014
4 September 2014 – Orange Sallow
Orange Sallow (Xanthia citrago) A Sallow Kitten (Furcula furcula) caused a flurry of excitement as I thought (briefly) that it was an Alder Kitten – but it turned out not to be the case. In the trap, among the underwings, the thorns and at least ten sexton beetles, the theme of sallowness continued with the discovery […]
31 August 2014
31 August 2014 – Woven Carpets
Shuttle-shaped Dart (Agrotis puta) The Shuttle-shaped Dart has been seen in York Museum Gardens over most of the summer, but hardly at all in Coxwold. This is a particularly bright example showing the pointed-ends to the pale oval marking that has been interpreted as a shuttle – the weaving kind. The meaning of the scientific […]
29 August 2014
28 August 2014 – Marbled Page
When I made Marbled Page (with Simon Elvins) a large print that includes all the names of the macro-moth species identified at Shandy Hall hitherto, I hoped that I would be seeing many of them in the trap during my fortnight’s stay. But the cold, damp nights have not been kind to moth trappers. At […]
24 August 2014
24 August 2014 – Moth Koyaanisqatsi?
Horse-chestnut Leaf Miner (Cameraria ohridella) The nights have been chilly over the last week and although traps have been set in the York Museum Gardens and at Shandy Hall we have seen only a very few of the usual suspects that are to be expected at this time of year. The beautiful Centre-barred Sallow has […]
17 August 2014
17 August 2014 – Dread-of-the-Sun
Feathered Gothic (Tholera decimalis) The new exhibition in the gallery at Shandy Hall includes a contemporary print that celebrates all the moths so far recorded here by listing their names in a dispersed arrangement across the paper. On the very day of the opening a new species visited the moth trap – too late, unfortunately, […]
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
