Many Mothers-of-pearl

... or possibly 'Many Mother-of-pearls'? In any case, one of the least micro-looking of all micros more or less took over the garden on 4th August, with 117 individuals in the trap (not counting, of course, those that managed to get away without our seeing). Although that night was record-breaking in terms of numbers of individuals (288 all told, 61 species), we've generally not had numbers similar to those of the July heatwave since returning from holiday at the weekend - still, the species showing up in the garden have changed quite substantially since we went away in July, with Uncertains and Buff Ermines now few and far between. Still, we clocked 26 new species on our first five nights back, including some gorgeous ones: Ruby Tiger, Mullein Wave, Gold Spot, and Purple and Dusky Thorns. The butterfly list continues to creep upwards, too, with a long-expected Comma in the garden on the 7th, and there have been good numbers of some presumed migrants - plenty of Silver Ys, and a Dark Sword-grass on the 3rd.

Ghostly Ruby Tiger, 4th August

Mullein Wave, 7th August

Gold Spot, 3rd August

Purple Thorn, 3rd August

Dusky Thorn, 6th August

Although I have the impression that micros are less numerous than previously, there are still plenty around, with some distinctive-looking creatures among them, such as these:

Hedya salicella, 4th August

Agonopterix alstromeiana, 6th August

So we're hoping to keep the list going upwards as the autumn comes in (I suspect we may, however, have got as high as we're going to as far as butterflies are concerned...).