Creatures of the Night

After weeks of being hopeless with the moth trap, I finally ran it last night, tempted by the warm weather and hoping that something special might turn up. I don't think I've ever run it this late in the season before - I tend to lose interest once the big beasts like the hawkmoths go off. Small brown moths of indeterminate species are not my thing, I need glamour! And so was very chuffed when one of the most dazzling of all British moths turned up, doing exactly what the books say it does - sitting just outside the trap, rather than in it.

It goes by the modest name of merveille du jour ("marvel of the day") and no prizes for guessing that it's perfectly at home when resting on a lichen-encrusted wall or tree. The larval foodplant is oak, but the adults seem to like ivy flowers, so there are plenty of those around the garden to keep it happy. In total I had over 40 moths in the trap, with beaded chestnuts and setaceous hebrew characters the most numerous, one each of blood vein, small fan-footed wave, orange sallow, four black rustics, three large wainscots and two green-brindled crescents, the latter not quite in the same league as the merveille but very handsome all the same: