The best period in my garden since the migrant madness of 2006! It continued with this amazing sight from my bedroom where these two photo were taken. I thought six Painted Lady's on the same Buddleia was great - then I managed to pick out this beauty.
Continuing on from the Ephestia species netted in my garden earlier this week I decided to have a go and dissect it. Quite a long, draining experience for such a tiny moth but it was worth it as it turned out to be a female Cacao Moth - another first for myself.
Slide preps guided by the illustrations in Goater's Pyralid book. Seems all I had to go on were the minute spines in the anterior half of the Ductus Bursae where as the False Cacao Moth has only a tiny patch of spines where it joins with the Bursae Copulatrix.
Spines enlarged below.
Just over 50 species recorded in the garden by day and wandering around with a net by night. Four of which were lifers - even had a Hedgehog for the first time in many years........
4 comments:
Another very exciting record of DGF , do we think they are migrants with the Painted Ladys or locals.....Bri leesey had one at Whiteholme yesterday....
Be interesting to find out Andy - maybe they're just post-breeding wanderers, I'll see what I can find out.
Either way it was a wonderful surprise.
There was a Clouded yellow in Liverpool the day after you small yellow butterfly in your garden......
Those "could have beens" are so annoying. My camera and bins were right next to me as well if only it had stayed a few seconds longer.
The DG Fritillaries are wanderers rather than migrants. In 2005-9 there were a few isolated dots on the Yorkshire map but practically none on the coast.
Just need to bag a White-letter Hairstreak now and I think I'm up to speed with all our breeding butterflies...........
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