Tag Archives: moth

The moth that acts like it’s a bird

31 Friday Jul 2026

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We don’t have Hummingbirds in the UK but I used to see them quite regularly when I lived in Peru so, when I see the creature in today’s images, my mind always goes back to my time living in South America.

Of course, this creature is smaller than even the smallest hummingbird, but not by as much as you might think. A Google search tells me that the Bee hummingbird, the world’s smallest, ranges in length from 5.5cms for a male to 6.1cms for a female, whereas a Humming-bird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) is between 3 to 5cms.

I don’t know about you but I’ve seen a lot of Humming-bird hawk-moths this summer, more than I remember seeing in previous years and, as this moth migrates to the UK from southern Europe and North Africa, I presume the increased sightings are yet another effect of the hot south-easterly winds blowing from the Continent and our continuing record-breaking heatwaves.

Though they are super to watch when they’re hovering to feed, these moths can be tricky to photograph. They rarely stay still for long so sharp images are almost impossible to capture though, actually, I don’t mind that too much as it does give a sense of their movement.

Lekking Green long-horns

14 Thursday May 2026

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My Collins Concise Dictionary defines lek, the noun, as ‘a small area in which birds of certain species, notably the black grouse, gather for sexual display and courtship’, and the word can also be used as a verb, hence lekking, the activity of courtship display in that area.

The dictionary only mentions birds and, certainly, we usually think of lekking as something confined to birds, but the act of showing off in order to attract a mate is not confined to avian species; insects and, apparently, some fish, also perform mating displays.

And that’s exactly what these Green long-horn moths (Adela reaumurella) were doing when I spotted them congregating around a particular bush in an area of trees (in fact, I’ve now seen several such displays in various woodland or tree-filled locations). I’m not sure why they choose their particular spot but it seems to be a prominent position towards the top of a shrub or on a branch that sticks out from the rest of a tree, often in sunshine, and they flutter about, settle briefly on a leaf, then flutter again. The lek is a delight to watch.

My first moth of the year

18 Wednesday Feb 2026

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Those moth-ers who run nightly moth traps have been reporting, on social media and despite the often detrimental weather, that small numbers of moths have begun appearing in their traps during the past couple of weeks. As I don’t trap, I’ve just been keeping an eye out in the places I sometimes see moths, usually on walls near where outside lights are on at night. And, finally, last Thursday, I spotted my first moth of the year, a new species for me, an Early moth (Theria primaria). As you might guess from its name, this is one of the first species to be seen each year, appearing in January and February. Though the UK Moths website says it’s usually found in woodland margins and hedgerows, this one was on the panelling around a building site, though the opposite side of the path is full of trees and scrub.

J is for Jersey tiger

15 Monday Dec 2025

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As I wrote on 30 August, after a lull in sightings over the past couple of years, 2025 was A good year for Jersey tigers, and it seems very likely that our changing climate has a lot to do with this year’s notable increase in sightings of this stunning moth.

Location location location

28 Friday Nov 2025

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Over the summer months I discovered how productive the solid fencing around this building site alongside the River Taff was for insect finds. A section of the fence along the access track to the site was where I saw my first Large white butterfly pupae and, subsequently, the parasitic wasps that preyed on them and were, in turn, the victims of other parasitic wasps (see Large whites and parasitism, part 1, 23 June and Large whites and parasitism, part 2, 24 June).

The interesting finds have continued with the changing seasons. Yesterday, when I walked slowly past, though there were several different creatures (including at least one Noble false widow spider), the highlights were moths, drawn to the wall, no doubt, by the lights that illuminate the wall at night. Yesterday’s finds were four Winter moths (Operophtera brumata) and a Mottled umber (Erannis defoliaria).

A Vapourer update

25 Tuesday Nov 2025

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Yesterday’s walk took me past the location where I found A female Vapourer last week. She was still there, but dead. I knew the females died soon after laying their eggs but I presume she had emerged too late in the year to attract a male (the UK Moths website says ‘the adults are out from July to September, sometimes October in the south’) as there were no eggs. I know this is just the way Nature works sometimes but I still felt a little sad that this lovely moth hadn’t been able to complete her purpose in life.

A female Vapourer

18 Tuesday Nov 2025

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The highlight of my walk last Saturday was finding my first female Vapourer moth (Orgyia antiqua), sitting on her cocoon, presumably newly emerged.

Now, you might look at her and think ‘That doesn’t look like a moth. Where are the wings?’ That’s the amazing thing about a female Vapourer – she’s almost wingless; her wings are so tiny that she’s unable to fly. Once she hatches, the female sits on her cocoon, as this one was, emitting pheromones and waiting for a male to fly by, notice and mate with her. Then, she’ll lay her eggs on the outside of her empty cocoon (as you can see on the other cocoon I found very close to the female, and which I also blogged about earlier this year: Vapourer pupa and eggs, January 2025). As she can’t fly, the female can’t feed, so she will die soon after laying her eggs.

Ominously, there were tiny parasitic wasps hanging around the female, presumably waiting to inject her eggs, so some of those eggs may not produce caterpillars come the spring.

More moth appreciation

10 Wednesday Sep 2025

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It’s moth appreciation time. Here are a few recent finds …

I thought it would be interesting to place these two ermine moths together so as to show their differences. On the left is an Orchard ermine (Yponomeuta padella), on the right a Bird-cherry ermine (Yponomeuta evonymella). To identify these and the several other species of ermine moths, you need to look carefully at the patterns of their spots and also at their food plants. The Bird-cherry has five rows of black dots on the forewing, so is quite distinctive. The Orchard ermine is very similar in appearance to a couple of other ermines, the Apple ermine and the Spindle ermine, so knowing their food plants is a great help (for the Orchard, they are Blackthorn, Hawthorn and Cherry, while the key to the other two is in their names, Apple and Spindle).

The Mint moth (Pyrausta aurata) can also be a bit tricksy to ID, as it’s very similar to the Common purple-and-gold (Pyrausta purpuralis), but the latter has distinctive light spots on its hind wings, which the Mint moth does not. Unsurprisingly, the Mint moth is often found on or near plants from the Mint (Mentha) family.

This, in my opinion, is the loveliest of today’s moths, the Mother of pearl (Pleuroptya ruralis), named for the pearlescent sheen of its wings. I must remember to look for its larvae, which feed in rolled-up leaves on Nettle plants (I can feel those stings already!).

For me, seeing a Rush veneer (Nomophila noctuella) – or, usually, several Rush veneers in one day – means warm winds are blowing from the south, bringing in migrating insects from Europe. And they are exactly the weather conditions we were experiencing over a couple of days very recently, when I saw more than six of these moths in just a few hours during a coastal walk.

A good year for Jersey tigers

30 Saturday Aug 2025

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In the summers of 2018, 2019 and 2020 one of the local nature reserves near me held what seemed like a healthy population of Jersey tiger moths (Euplagia quadripunctaria), then they vanished. I don’t know why this was but several people have looked for them at the reserve in the intervening years and, though the occasional single moth has been sighted, the healthy population is no more. Away from that reserve, I would struggle to see any Jersey tigers, and saw none at all in 2021 and 2022.

So, this year, it has been an absolute delight for me to have enjoyed many, seemingly random sightings of these beautiful moths. By random, I mean that there haven’t been any large numbers concentrated in any specific location or area; instead, either I’ve spotted them lurking on trees and bushes, or my passing has disturbed them, there’s been a flash of their vibrant orange underwings as they’ve fluttered out and I’ve seen them once they’ve resettled.

And it seems my experience of seeing greater numbers of Jersey tigers this year has not been unique. This is a species that is included in Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count, and, even before the count had ended, with 7 of the count’s 24 days remaining, that organisation had noted a ‘whopping 78%’ increase in reported Jersey tigers this year compared to last year. Butterfly Conservation’s blog post speculates that the dramatic increase was due to this summer’s record-breaking high temperatures.

As Dr Richard Fox, BC’s Head of Science is quoted as saying

The increase we’re seeing in Jersey Tiger moth sightings is a striking example of how climate change is reshaping the distribution of wildlife.
While it’s a delight to spot such a vibrant moth in gardens, parks and green spaces, it’s also a reminder of how rising temperatures are altering our natural environment.

Anyone for a mocha?

07 Wednesday May 2025

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I’m not a coffee drinker but perhaps the person who gave this moth its common name was. Meet The Mocha (Cyclophora annularia), a gorgeous moth that’s described as scarce on the UK Moths website, though it seems from looking at the NBN Atlas for this species that sightings are concentrated in southern Britain so scarce the further north you go. Perhaps surprisingly, I found this one sitting on a house wall as I walked past this morning.