Back on night shift.
Feb 24th, 2009 by Duncan
I’ve been neglecting the moths lately, they have been quite scarce and the beetles have made the job unbearable on the odd occasion I’ve fired up the mercury vapour lamp. Sunday night was warm and calm so I decided to try again, but this time set up on the opposite side of the house. It paid dividends too, although slow to start, the moth visitors gradually turned up, and by 10.30 I had enough photos in the camera to keep me busy for an hour or two next day. I published a moth post last October, and it featured the first moth to arrive on this occasion, a cup moth, Pseudanapaea transvestita.
The second to arrive was a quite striking noctuid, Proteuxoa sanguinipuncta. Later on it decided to flutter up the sheet and I got a couple of shots on the wing. It’s interesting to see the relative transparency of the wings in the camera flash, the legs and texture of the sheet can be seen through the wings.
Hot on the heels of that one came a tiny geometrid in the genus Idaea, and according to Donald Hobern there are four species that are really only separable by dissection, so similar are they.
Several specimens of this very attractive moth in the Crambinae came to the light, the genus is Hednota, and the species could be either relatalis or gramellus. Thanks Wendy for the help with this one. Edit. DH says relatalis, thanks Donald.
Quite a few noctuids arrived, including this beautiful specimen of Persectania ewingii, one that I’d photographed several times before, but this is my best image yet.
In contrast to the moths, several of these ichneumonid wasps also came in, they and other similar ones are common visitors to the moth light and add interest to the night’s photos. There’s rarely a dull moment when mothing.
Click all photos to enlarge, some are quite big, so toggle to full screen to see the full size image.