A Lunar Marbled Brown!

Camera, check. 

Tripod, check. 

Bean-bag, check. 

Field notebook, check. 

Hand lens, check.

Mug of tea (vital), check. 

Pen (for recording), check. 

Pencil (for persuading sleepy moths to step onto), check.

 

And..... 

Not one, not two, but THREE moth books (Waring, Sterling, and David Brown's fabulous "Larger Moths of Warwickshire"). Check. 

Yep, I can lug all that down the garden in one trip. Just. :-)

I was feeling cheerfully optimistic, it was mild, humid & overcast - surely a perfect mothing night - and I was sure the trap was going to be heaving with all kinds of mothy treasures for me to photograph!

Here's what I got:

Clouded Drab, 5

Common Quaker, 10

Hebrew Character, 2

Small Quaker, 1

Black Sexton Beetle, 1 (played dead and refused to be photographed)

Unidentified parasitic wasp, 1 (flew off whilst I was tripod-fiddling)

And.... (drum roll....)

One Lunar Marbled Brown (new for year, and new for garden), retrieved from a fence post last night and dropped gently in the trap, which did rather ruin the surprise this morning!

So here it is, photographed from every conceivable angle, before I lugged all that kit back up the garden again.

C'est la vie!

Keep trapping!

Cheryl