Monday 23 July 2012

Some day-flying moths

Following on the last post on moths, not all moths are nocturnal. Even if you don't want to go out there in the night looking for moths, you can come across many species of moth by day. There are over a hundred species of day-flying moth in the UK. Some species don't seem to care if it is day or night. Many day- flying moths are quite spectacular and often taken for butterflies. The following is is just a small selection of garden day flying moths.
 On the top shot, the Six spot Burnet, Zygaena filipendulae, on Betony, Stachys officinalis.
Silver Y, Autographa gamma, a strong migrant, it is often active during the day.
Mint Moth, Pyrausta aurata. The caterpillars of this small beauty feed on plants of the mint family.
The spectacular Hummingbird HawkmothMacroglossum stellatarum feeding on Red Valerian
Small Magpie, Eurrhypara hortulata. Flies by day in June and July.
Cinnabar Moth, Tyria jacobaeae. In flight, it is often taken by a pink butterfly.

3 comments:

batdetectors@gmail.com said...

Africa, your posts never cease to amaze! What an incredible assortment of species. Your garden has everything!

Africa Gomez said...

Thank you Al! I live very close to a wildlife garden, with a native plant meadow and pond and a herb garden which I often visit, that bumps up the number of species I am able to see locally.

biobabbler said...

I think I'm gonna swoon! How did I miss this post? STUNNING and I swear my heart rate sped up. THANK YOU for sharing.

A question for you. May I have permission to "pin" some of these photographs onto Pinterest? They'd all track back to your blog, so you get 100% credit (& I can write whatever you want in the photo caption re: you and your genius =) ).

They're just SO stunning, I want to share them. You can let me know via biobabbler at g mail dot com. THANKS!