Shandy Hall Moths
19 September 2011
19 September 2011 – Merveille du Jour
Life’s complications The Canary-shouldered Thorn was kindly confirmed by Dave Chesmore. Since then life’s complications have made setting the trap difficult and when it has been – still the wasps come. What time do they get up? Do they go marauding at night? When I look at the contents of the trap in the morning […]
24 August 2011
23 August 2011 – A Thorny Question
Canary-shouldered Thorn (Ennomos alniaria) ? Wasps and plums have been two obstacles hindering successful traps over the last couple of weeks. The trap is normally placed on grass not far from a plum tree, but the increase of ripening fruit, and the number of young wasps from one of the nests in the garden, has […]
3 August 2011
3 August 2011 – Wrapped in a veil
The past two moth-traps have had nothing of great interest to record. Broad-bordered Yellow Underwings (Noctua fimbriata), Common Rustics (Mesapamea secalis), Common Footmen (Eilema lurideola)* and Wainscots (Mythimna pallens) making up the majority of low species counts. Meanwhile the caterpillars are beginning to pupate. A tiny hole in the corner of the cage (enlarged by […]
26 July 2011
25 July 2011 – Thorns
August Thorn and Purple Thorn When opening the trap first thing in the morning, the spotted flycatchers sit in the lilac or the plum tree and wait to twirl after any moth that is disturbed when lifting the sheet or moving an egg carton. If the flycatchers happen to be elsewhere, the swallows will swoop […]
15 July 2011
15 July 2011 – The 169th species
Acleris forsskaleana Last night was a better night for moths – cloudy, warmish and not much in the way of a moon, or at least not over Coxwold. This morning at 6am there were four Garden Tiger moths, four Poplar Hawks, three Brimstones, Silver Ys, Broad-bordered Yellow Underwings, enough Common Footmen to staff a palace […]
15 July 2011
12 July 2011 – Two new species
The identification of a Smoky Wainscot (Mythimna impure) and Agriphila straminella take the number of different species found at Shandy Hall to 167. The total will be checked carefully as the number is achieving significance. Mythimna is named after a town on the island of Lesbos and impura, meaning unclean or dirtied, refers to the […]
6 July 2011
5 July 2011 – Brightly coloured petticoats
Another week passes and this post must go up. A Garden Tiger moth (Arctia caja) turned up. What a wonderful moth it is. Arctia from the Greek for ‘bear’ – the hairy larva is called the ‘wooly bear’ –and caja is taken from a Roman lady’s name (the female of Caius). Linnaeus used feminine names […]
6 July 2011
27 June 2011 – Hairy larvae everywhere
They hatched. Here they are like a small herd of buffalo all off in search of food. Clover turned out to be the tastiest of the varieties presented. Getting the caterpillars off the mesh and into a container was easier than it looked and now they are growing fast. Dave Chesmore thinks they may be […]
21 June 2011
21 June 2011 – Sons of egg blog
Unfortunately very little has turned up in the trap of late. The cool nights seem to be keeping the moths at bay. Lots of Beautiful Golden Ys and Heart and Darts; the odd Brimstone and the first Broad-bordered Yellow Underwings but nothing special. However, the cluster of eggs has now changed colour from pale emerald […]
13 June 2011
13 June 2011 – Bringer of good tidings
The Eyed Hawk-moth (Smerinthus ocellata) glared at me when I tried to move it from the trap to find a more appropriate background for a photograph. Smerinthus meaning ‘thread’ is a possible link to the Death’s Head Hawk-moth (Acherontia atropos), as the thread referred to could be that of Life itself, woven by the Fates […]
7 June 2011
7 June 2011 – Egg Blog
How many? 85 seems to be about right. Laid with the precision of a machine-gun but on the outside of the moth cage not on the inside. I thought the White Ermine or the Green Silver-lines might have been responsible but they didn’t make contact with the outside of the mesh. The last clutch of […]
6 June 2011
3 June 2011 – Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth
Epiblema cynosbatella crept in, nearly unnoticed, on 20 May (photo on side panel) and was identified by Dave Chesmore as Shandy Hall’s newest species. 163 in total. Last night was the warmest for a while and the trap was out by 9pm which might explain why the dusk-flying Common Swift was seen this morning. Hepialus […]
Recent Moths
- 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
- 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
