I’ve spent far too long today hacking up my Imaging Storm website to make it more usable in terms of its photo galleries. Totally changed the way they function to make them better on desktop and mobile. By the way, if Sciencebase is my “Science, Snaps, and Songs” site, then Imaging Storm is definitely the “Snaps, Songs, and Science” site. There isn’t really a Songs, Snaps, and Science permutation yet, nor even a “Songs, Science, and Snaps” option. You have to just visit my BandCamp for the music.
Anyway, I’ve split the bird galleries into obvious categories: Perching birds, Seabirds, Waders & Waterfowl, Birds of prey, and Misc. I’ve also added a specific gallery for moths and butterflies for which the number of photos of different species I have is growing fast this week as regular readers may have noticed. I’ve also teased apart the wildlife gallery into mammals, non-mammalian vertebrates, and other invertebrates.
Be really nice if you could pay a visit to this sibling site of Sciencebase! Thanks.
You won’t believe the animals that live in your garden. You may well have frogs, toads, hedgehogs, rabbits, moles, mice, rats, squirrels, deer (perhaps), a couple of dozen different specis of bird and myriad invertebrates.
It is this latter category that offer the greatest biological diversity and actually in my title I was really just referring to moths, the Lepidoptera (which includes the butterflies, they’re just a type of moth). Lepidoptera is my current natural science inclination at the moment having borrowed an actinic moth trap from my friend Rob (later bought it off him and have been using it ever since).
There are some 2600 species of Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) in the British Isles. I’ve seen a very, very small selection of them after a couple of nights of moth-trapping in two gardens. The moths are always released unharmed first thing in the morning after observations and optional photocall, by the way. The current list is at the foot of this post, there have been at least the same number again in the trap unphotographed and unidentified, mainly small (micro) moths.
Lots of animals species migrate – buffalo, wildebeest, swallows, swifts, monarch butterflies, and of course, moths. I found two Silver Y (Autographa gamma) this morning, before the rain. This species can turn up in the thousands, according to UK Moths, it’s a day and night flyer.
Curiously, having photographed it this morning and headed back to my PC to look for an ID, I logged into the “Moths UK Flying Tonight” group on Facebook and the first moth in the newsfeed was a Silver Y. More specifically, because its “Y” is split in two it was actually Silver y “f.bipartita”. But, mine according to the expert on the group was a classic example of the species.
The Silver Y is in the family Noctuidae, but within the relatively small sub-family Plusiinae. It is a medium-sized moth (wingspan 30 to 45 mm). It has intricately patterned wings with shades of grey and brown for camouflage. In the centre of each forewing there is a silvery mark shaped like a letter “Y” or a Greek letter Gamma, hence the common and scientific names. There are various forms with varying colours that arise dependent on the climate in which the larvae grow.
If you’ve been following Sciencebase this week on the site, Facebook, and on Twitter, you will have noticed a trend in the past few days, the focus is moths. A friend asked if I’d added a new string to my bow…well, not so much that it’s still just science and snaps, but maybe the subject matter is akin to having bought some new sheet music.
The moth trap actinic lamp was on when I got home last night, so headed out into the garden to see if I could see any activity within. Lots of flies, a few moths already in the trap, mostly small grey ones, a couple of Buff Ermines. But sitting on a Virginia Creeper leaf a more vivid moth than I’d seen in the garden before - Jersey Royal (Euplagia quadripunctaria). It scuttled around for a while, landed on the trap, but didn’t fall in through funnel into the box. It was still sitting on one of the flight baffles when I got up first thing this morning to see what had settled on the egg cartons within.
Jersey Tiger
This striped species is actually a day-flying moth the original range of which was the Channel Islands, hence the name. It has apparently spread to the UK south coast and to Devon and there are some reported in London. To see one in a garden just north of Cambridge is unusual. It’s either an off-course migrant or an individual attempting to expand the species’ range northwards. The hot and dry weather we have had since the end of May here might explain unusual animal behaviour. Incidentally, a rain shower on the afternoon of the 26th July, first one since May.
The awful shots below were done in the dark of the garden with my phone to try and catch it with its wings open. It was fluttering by very quickly in around the actinic tube of the trap, up and down the baffles and then back into the creepers that coat our rear fence close to where I’d set the trap.
The International Space Station (ISS) pass overhead twice while we were in the pub garden last night. It often does, obviously, and none of was simply seeing double. There are numerous websites that let you know when you can next see the ISS pass over your neighbourhood, VirtualAstro on Twitter puts out alerts, and thare are also smart phone apps that will push a timely notification.
Here are a few facts about the ISS:
First component launched into orbit 1998
Final pressurised module fitted in 2011
Total cost estimated in 2010 as $150 billion
Anticipated operation until 2028, extended from 2024
Some components might be re-used to build a new space station
ISS is a joint project between NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA
109 x 73 metres, with solar panels extended
408 tonnes
Orbits at an altitude of between 330 and 435Â kilometres
Makes about 15 orbits of the Earth each day
Takes 90 minutes to make one orbit
Travels at a speed of approximately 28000 km/h
Visible with the naked if you are in the right place at the right time
Appears as a slow-moving, bright white dot (reflected sunlight)
Takes about 10 minutes to pass from one horizon to another, but only visible when not in the Earth’s shadow
Continuously occupied since 2nd November 2000
145 people from the USA and 46 from Russia have been aboard, plus people from 16 other nations as of January 2018
Since the end of NASA’s Space Shuttle program, Russian Soyuz rockets used to transport supplies and crew
In low orbit, the crew is protected from the Solar wind by the Earth’s magnetic field
They have a safe space for increased protection if a solar flare is heading their way
Main roles:Â laboratory, observatory, and factory
Additional purposes:Â staging base for future Moon, Mars, and asteroid missions
Other uses: commercial, diplomatic, and educational
The toilets are fitted with spring-loaded restraining bars to ensure a good seal
Solid waste is bagged and brought back down to Earth
Natural history bookseller NHBS Ltd also sells moth traps similar to the Robinson-type trap my friend Rob built way-back-when (2006, actually). I’ve sited his homemade trap in my garden in the hope of seeing a few creatures of the night in the morning. Of course, this process is one of scientific observation and interest, we’re not trapping them to kill them, once caught and observed they are released back into the wild of the back garden. Meanwhile, the NHBS blog – The Hoopoe – has a few tips on setting up and using a trap, which I’ve cribbed and adapted below.
Buff Ermine moth
Site your trap in a garden with lots of nectar-rich native plants, preferably species that open their flowers at night and on which moths like to feed: night-scented stock, evening primrose, honeysuckle, nicotinia. In September and October, ivy blossom can provide an abundant source of nectar for many species of moth.
Opt for a brighter mercury vapour bulb rather than an actinic type lamp if you can as this will attract more moths, although the bright mercury bulb might annoy neighbours that overlook your garden and it also needs protection from the rain as it glows hot and could shatter. Your mileage may vary, Rob caught a lot of moths with his actinic lamp. However, NHBS suggest that you might trap 500-1000 moths with a mercury-bulb trap.
Cloudy, warm, and moonless nights are best, Don’t set your trap on a cold, clear night, especially after a warm spell, as there will be far fewer moths and fewer species venturing out.
Avoid windy or wet nights, many moths will simply not fly and rain might damage your equipment.
Set the trap away from streetlights and switch off any external lighting in your garden as these will attract moths to them rather than the trap.
If there are southerly winds, the UK’s south coast might see increased numbers of migrants carried up from the continent.
You will get best results in July and August when moths are abundant and active. Check local wildlife websites and discussion groups for advice on moths that might be flying at other times of the year, especially in rural areas.
Don’t set your trap too often and avoid setting it on consecutive nights to avoid catching the same moths, you might end up starving them if they’re trapped repeatedly early in the evening before they have eaten.
Check your trap as soon as possible after dawn. If you cannot do so, then make sure it’s not going to be in direct sunlight when the sun rises.
If the rising sun is likely to be incident on your trap in the morning, place a wet sponge in the base of the trap to provide hydrating water for the temporarily incarcerated creatures.
Once you’ve examined, counted, photographed your trawl, release the moths into dense vegetation. If you plan to use the trap again, carry out the release at least 50 metres away from the trapping site to avoid capturing the same moths again, for the sake of the moths.
Watch out for predatory blackbirds and other birds that might latch on to the sudden flurry of dozy moths in the morning and make a meal of them. You can tell if a moth is only just waking up as it will most likely be quivering and vibrating its wings.
Be wary of wasps and hornets that might also have been trapped. Early in the morning these creatures will be fairly docile and can be removed with little risk of you being stung, however.
There was an Elephant Hawk-moth in the trap this morning, and there was me about to give up hope of catching a Hawk in our garden! Anyway, I posted a few pictures on one of the moth groups on Facebook and got some additional advice from a reader there called Jacqueline:
I always release any caught moths at night where there is less chance of them becoming an easy meal. Keep the moths that you don't want a closer look at covered to try and avoid escapees, and place in the cool shade. Ones you want to look closely at or photograph, pot them and put them in the fridge to cool down, then late afternoon, by the time they've had time in the fridge, try photographing them. They will warm up quicker when the weather is warmer so be aware of that and get ready to re-pot safely if they decide to fly. Have a larger tub for the larger moths like the Elephant Hawkmoth etc. When you have finished with photos, put them back in their pots, you can then either keep them on a table until you release at night.
Of course, there is the issue of pipistrelle bats, of which we have several that circulate our garden at dusk. They eat several hundred moths each most days, apparently. So, not sure which approach is best: night or day release…
First time I looked in an actinic moth trap, we’d landed a Poplar Hawk-moth. A phone camera snapshot is now in the moths section of my fast-growing wildlife gallery here, the one that runs in parallel with the bird gallery. The two nights I’ve had the trap lit in my garden, I’ve caught some nice, small species, but no more Hawk-moths. A highlight of last night, although one that didn’t ever enter the trap, was the Jersey Tiger (Euplagia quadripunctaria).
Jersey Tiger
My moth expert friend Brian Stone, of whom I have spoken in the birding context many times, pointed out that this specimen is probably a migrant given my location (north of Cambridge), although it could be due to range expansion. According to Ian UK moths site: “This species was until recently restricted in distribution to the Channel Islands and parts of the [British] south coast. On the mainland, it is commonest in south Devon, but colonies have recently appeared in Dorset and the Isle of Wight, and it has also been found in other southern counties.”
I asked Brian whether I was likely to see any Hawk-moths, having been disappointed after that initial success with the Poplar.
Poplar Hawk-moth
“During peak periods you will attract them without any difficulty,” he told me. “Poplar are double-brooded so you will get them from now on, Elephant should still be flying and Pine is a bit later and still plenty on the wing now but it is scarcer. With the weather [almost record-breaking prolonged period of hot and dry] we are having you could pull in one of the scarcer migrants like Convolvulus or one of the Hyles species.”
However, normally there would be fewer hawk-moths on the wing by late July. Lime Hawk peak in May/June and hardly any are seen by August. He added that it is possible to check out flight periods on local websites in your area. For me, closest would be Hants Moths. Brian also recalls that in one hot year (specifically, 1st July 2005) he trapped a Bedstraw Hawk-moth in his actinic trap, “a proper rarity”.
There is also the issue of whether one should use a trap on consecutive nights. “I tended not to run consecutive nights,” Brian told me. “You will tend to trap a fair few of the same [individual] moths and they need to get out there and do their thing. Plus you get a lie in.”
Peter Gabriel’s 1977 song “Here Comes the Flood” is nothing to do with the outcome of over-zealous climatic precipitation, downpours, weather, or indeed floods. Rather, the lyrics muse on the fantastical notion of universal telepathy suddenly occurring across the human race and the devastation to us as individuals that would ensue with such a vast information and emotional overload.
This is a cover version of the song I recorded in May 2013.
“Here Comes The Flood”
When the night shows
the signals grow on radios
All the strange things
they come and go, as early warnings
Stranded starfish have no place to hide
still waiting for the swollen Easter tide
There’s no point in direction we cannot
even choose a side.
I took the old track
the hollow shoulder, across the waters
On the tall cliffs
they were getting older, sons and daughters
The jaded underworld was riding high
Waves of steel hurled metal at the sky
and as the nail sunk in the cloud, the rain
was warm and soaked the crowd.
Lord, here comes the flood
We’ll say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again the seas are silent
in any still alive
It’ll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you’re running dry.
When the flood calls
You have no home, you have no walls
In the thunder crash
You’re a thousand minds, within a flash
Don’t be afraid to cry at what you see
The actors gone, there’s only you and me
And if we break before the dawn, they’ll
use up what we used to be.
Lord, here comes the flood
We’ll say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again the seas are silent
in any still alive
It’ll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you’re running dry.
Literally, the easiest way to identify a moth is to have an expert friend, I’ve mentioned Brian and Rob in previous posts. They have helped me tag a couple of dozen different moth species over the last couple of days. I think, to be honest, that’s basically all of them, I think I identified just one myself.
Scalloped Oak
There are something like 160000 species of moth around the world, many without a name, many yet to be discovered, many species identified and long-since extinct, and many more that we never knew. The earliest known lepidoptera fossils date to between 40 and 50 million years ago.
Cloaked Minor
Etymologically the word moth comes from the Old English moððe, which is close to the Northumbrian word mohðe both similar to common Germanic, Old Norse motti, Dutch mot, and German motte. People with a morbid fear of moths are said to have mottephobia, those who love moths might be referred to as mottephiles.
Ruby Tiger
Okay, so there are a lot of different types of moth, many of them look very, very similar. Many cannot be distinguished from their close relatives by a superficial look at them and require dissection or genetic profiling to distinguish between them. Now, I mentioned having friends who can ID them for you, but obviously, pestering and brain-picking friends grows tiring…for those friends. There are plenty of websites that might help:
http://www.ukmoths.org.uk/ is probably the best place to start. Brian points out that you can use the family thumbnail search as a starting point. “If in doubt with a larger moth try noctuidae for moths with wings held tent-like and geometridae for those resting with the wings flat,” he suggests. “Only a guide though as not all in those families behave the same.
Willow Beauty
Another good resource is http://www.hantsmoths.org.uk/. You can browse by subfamily as well so it makes it a bit easier, he tells me. https://www.norfolkmoths.co.uk is also good for searching by thumbnail. Brian suggests that, “You should soon get a feel for the different families.”
Some of the websites have a “flying tonight” section, which alludes to what species might be in the air at any given time of year and so what you might expect to see in your trap in the morning and what the local pipistrelle bats will be dining on. For those in my locale (near Cambridge, UK), the best resource for the status of any given moth is http://www.hmbg.org/, Brian tells me. It spefically covers the old county of Hunts & Peterborough, but that’s close enough to be useful for anyone across inland East Anglia and the East Midlands, I suspect. There may be moth sites in your region that offer a similar “in the air tonight” update.
One aspect of moths that is truly fascinating is the range and the style of their common names…this is the list of what I’ve ID’ed (or had pointed out to me) just in two mornings of being a nouveau mottephile:
Blood vein (Timandra comae)
Brown-tail (Euproctis chrysorrhoea)
Buff Ermine (Spilosoma lutea)
Burnished Brass (Diachrysia chrysitis)
Cloaked Minor (Mesoligia furuncula)
Common Rustic agg. (Mesapamea secalis)
Copper Underwing (Amphipyra pyramidea)
Dark Arches (Apamea monoglypha)
Dusky Brocade (Apamea remissa)
Dusky Sallow Eremobia ochroleuca
Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba)
Least Carpet (Idaea rusticata)
Pebble Hook-tip (Drepana falcataria)
Poplar Hawk Moth (Laothoe populi)
Rose-flounced Tabby (Endotricha flammealis)
Ruby Tiger (Phragmatobia fuliginosa)
Scalloped Oak (Crocallis elinguaria)
The Dun-bar (Cosmia trapezina)
The Rustic/The Uncertain (Hoplodrina blanda/octogenaria)
Turnip Moth (Agrotis segetum)
Willow Beauty (Peribatodes rhomboidaria)
Some of those names are quite mundane. Large Yellow for instance, isn’t so grand, but Dusky Brocade, what imagery does that suggest? The Dun-bar sounds like a particularly enticing single-malt Scotch Whisky and The Uncertain beggars endless questions. Some of the names are functional, one might say, Poplar Hawk Moths, presumably lay their eggs preferentially in poplar trees, while the Scalloped Oak perhaps simply looks like a slice of oak wood that has had scallopes removed from its edge. And, how fierce does the Ruby Tiger sound compared to the (newly named) Rose Flounced Tabby?
Hopefully, tomorrow I will have a new collection to share with a whole new range of names. Brian just pointed out that there are about 2800 species of moth in the UK and he reckons he could at one time ID about 1000. He also adds rather ominously that there are probably 700 species in your back garden. This is mothology lark is certainly something of a deep rabbit hole. At least with stamp collecting the critters sit still and don’t fly away.
…the long, hot summer? You want to be a rebel and turn your hosepipes on! — Damon “Badly Drawn Boy” Gough (Born in the UK).
Great song, a very British version of Born in the USA, and far better to be frank.
Anyway, where was I in ’76, just entering my second decade in the North East of England and then to the scorched earth of Great Yarmouth for our summer hols…we visited The Norfolk Broads and even Lowestoft. The day after we got home, that town was flooded, and the Minister for Drought (Denis Howell) was quickly renamed the Minister for Floods and rather than organising water bowsers, standpipes, shared baths, and demanding we let our plants die, was forced to organise buckets for the bailout.
Fellow science journalist David Shuckman is also reminiscing about the summer of ’76. He was doing his A-levels, so he must be 7 or 8 years older than me. He’s looked at the differences between that long, hot summer and the current one. It was 30+ in the shade here, just outside Cambridge, earlier in the week, and while the patio slabs feel hotter and have scorched my bare feet (only myself to blame), it’s actually only got to 29 today.
Apparently, it’s a weak jetstream and cyclic Atlantic surface temperatures that have led to this long hot, dry spell (I don’t think it’s rained here since May). But, there’s also the effects of global warming, which may well have nudged on the effects of the weak jetstream and the Atlantic temperature. However, as Shuckman points out, the high pressure keeping the British Isles warm and dry in ’76 was further to the East, which meant it sucked up hotter, more humid air from the south that made it even more sultry at night than it has been this year (honest!).
But the current UK heatwave isn’t just a UK phenomenon, countries across the globe that aren’t directly affected by the Atlantic, the jetstream, and shared baths are also suffering. It’s possible that the heatwave will persist through August, there are storms forecast here for the weekend, but minimal chance of rain. Shuckman points out that East Anglia generally gets less per capita rain than Jerusalem. So, it could be that those standpipes are going to have to be brought out of storage, and if you’ve only got a cubicle shower in your en suite and no bath, you’re going to have get even more intimate than they did in ’76. Oh, and back then, they had two years to wait till Jilted John.
