It was a warm and humid night last night and as a result there were lots of moths in the trap. Nothing rare but lots of rather splendid looking animals.
This is a Beautiful Golden Y (beautiful is part of its name thus the capital letter)
Another view once I have released back into the garden
This is a Lilac Beauty – amazing colours along its forewing
This is a Beautiful Hook-tip – rather confusingly it is a Noctuid moth and not a Drepanid moth where all the other hook-tips are to be found
A Heart and Club with splendid feathery antennae
A Buff Ermine
A Lackey
And everyone’s favourite – an Elephant Hawkmoth
Beautiful catch! Indeed, the Elephant Hawkmoth is one of my favourites, too.
These are fabulous. I belong the NY Butterfly club. We just had a lecture on moths by Steve Nanz who is one of the king pins on http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740 Moths are amazing — so many shapes, sizes and colors.
I’m really getting into moths after all these beautiful photos. I’ve been rather anti in the past … assuming that they’re only interested in chewing holes in my cashmere cardigans.