Wildlife

James Lowen

For the hell of it, here are a couple more images of this week's Toadflax Brocade. It'll probably be my garden moth of the spring (perhaps the year), so I might as well make the most of it.

At least one Hedgehog continues to be a regular visitor to our garden, this individual appearing around 9pm most nights.

And with that, back to Joe Wicks and his mania for press-ups.

A few other mothy bits and bobs from the garden and surroundings. The year's first Brimstone (moth) is always pleasing. So too any Herald.

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29 April 2020 Press-ups

One of my favourite moth genera does press-ups - my least-favourite exercise (particularly given my daily lockdown-penance of Joe Wicks' 9am sessions with my daughter). Caloptilia micromoths are far better at doing press-ups than I ever will be. Long forelimbs held erect lift the critter's head upwards and effectively depress the animal's rear end. They don't always stand still, however, and it took many (many!) attempts before I could get images of a pair of species that I netted on a mild dusk a few nights ago. Caloptilia stigmatella (White-triangle Slender) has a constant appearance - the clue being in its vernacular name - but C. falconipennella (Scarce Alder Slender) varies considerably. So much so that it took a bit of sleuthing before I could find images of individuals with a similar appearance to mine.