Today I have been mainly concentrating on some of my favourite animals: moths.  Here follows a photo list of what I have caught here so far:




Plume Moth - Emmelina monodactyla, a little freak




Diurnea fagella - I think the pattern on the wings looks like an angry, angry man




My first big furry moth of the year - an Early Grey!




Satellite



Acleris notana or ferrugana, you can only tell them apart by poking at their bits... I did not poke

March moth... satisfyingly caught in March

Red Chestnut

Small Quaker

Brindled Pug... I think

Brindled Beauty, a very appropriate name

Shoulder Stripe - the most colourful and beautiful moth so far?  Look at the purple!

Common Quaker

The Chestnut

Dotted Border



Twin-Spotted Quaker



A nice pair of Hebrew Characters

Clouded Drab

The star of the show  - Frosted Green

This last moth I had the chance to become very well acquainted with, and he perfectly illustrates the placid and endearing characteristics that makes moths so wonderful. 

I didn't know what he was at first, the name "Frosted Green" being slightly misleading in my opinion, so I decided to take him home with me to have a better look.  After having already having spent the night trapped in a plastic bucket and then been given a cursory examination, he then had to face the indignity of being carted back to HQ in a wheel-barrow.  He dealt with this in an exemplary manner and then, after having been duly identified, he spent the day sitting on his egg-box by my bedside, enduring a range of world and alternative musics. 

As dark approached I took a little walk to put the trap out again in a different location.  So in he went, back into the wheelbarrow, and I transported him back to his original location where I placed him in a little pile of leaves.  Hopefully by now he is flying around making lots of baby moths, and is no worse the wear for his ordeal.  Throughout his time with me he never once tried to a) eat my belongings b) urinate and defacate on my belongings and floor coverings c) bite me d) bite the other moths e) cause me any trouble at all in any way.  This is a nice change from the usual animal behaviour I have to deal with.

I am making some good new friends in Suffolk!