Anyone else like moths or shall I shut up now?
 

I took this photo of a "Ringlet" when I visited a local butterfly 'hotspot' during my bike ride yesterday.

http://i.imgur.com/pCQw15p.jpg

It's pretty clear where it got that name; the male's top side is a dark plain-chocolate brown with more of these little circles.

Since I heard on the grapevine that we might expect an influx of Large Tortoiseshell butterflies from southern and eastern Europe this summer (normally one of the rarest types you could hope to see in the UK) I thought I might keep a record here of anything unusual I get on our buddleia bushes, or even at the local RSPB reserve; maybe some of the more usual stuff, too.

If you want to, please post pics or descriptions of what you see locally, I'd like to know about it.

If this proves the roaring success we all expect (:D) then I might do moths as well, except I'll have to stay off the beer and go out at night for that. Did you know that moths like beer too? Another story...

In Minnesota we got Luna Moths: here's one at about the right size ! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...female_sjh.JPG

If we had those over here we'd keep 'em as pets.

Luna moths can be found in Florida as well I've seen a few there over the years that fight be as far south as they go.

The Atlas Moth makes a Luna look tiny Atlas can have a 10 inch Wong span they live in Southeast Asia.

We had a lot of these growing up.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._cecropia).jpg

These days I battle an infestation of the winter moth. It's an invasive species with no local predators. Their caterpillars can strip a full grown maple tree in a few days.

http://www.briggsgarden.com/wp-conte...moth-cycle.jpg

We also have periodic outbreaks of the Gypsy Moth
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/caer/ce/eek/cr...mothstages.jpg

I have several 75ft tall oak trees in my yard that are completely stripped of leaves this year. Whole sections of forest around here look more like November than July.

You can get hangers for that.

We get quite a few moths around here, the bats are rather fond of them, but the ratio of bat to moth is always in the moths favour.
One lovely example that I noticed on a door at work the other night was the Swallow-tailed. Lovely wing colour. :yep:

Hangars?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_DH.60_Moth :03:

He likes Moths
https://laydenrobinson.files.wordpre...8_180778_2.jpg

Eh, those only sunk a battleship, the ones I have are far more destructive. :yep:

At least August spelled hangars correctly :D . My stepdaughter used to call moths 'bedtime butterflies', made them more attractive to kids.

These are endangered from here . Too much forest clearing .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornithoptera_richmondia

LOL :)