Three autumnal moths

I think autumnal moths are my favourites! I love the colours which I always think are mimicking the colours of the dying leaves on the trees.

This is a Barred Sallow

This is a Sallow

And this is the wonderfully named Lunar Underwing – so called because of the crescent moon shape on its uunderwing

All three species are common and all only appear as adults in the autumn.

A rare moth and some attractive ones

I caught a couple of L-album wainscots in my moth trap on Saturday night. A strange name! L refers to the L-shaped marks on the forewing and album is the Latin for white.

The wainscot moth with white L shapes

This is a Nationally Scarce moth in the UK – it was first recorded here in 1901 when it was thought to be a migrant species. By the 1930s it had been established that it bred in South Devon

It is largely a coastal species (the inland records are probably migrants) – it lives along brackish marshes (like the one at the bottom of my garden in Exton) and the caterpillars feed on a variety of grasses.

The trap also contained this green-brindled crescent – a rather smart moth – caterpillars feed on various shrubs such as blackthorn

There were also these rather pretty ‘sallows’ – the one on the left is the Barred Sallow whilst the three on the right are all the same species ‘The Sallow’