A Triumph (old)

You will of course remember the Triumph cars and perhaps the Triumph Herald? I shall not be putting a picture of one here, instead I will put one of my favourite moth - the Herald. This distinctively shaped moth with beautiful shades of orange, greyish brown and white with deeply scalloped and indented outer wing edges was one of the first I ever recorded, some 40 years or more ago. These moths over-winter in outbuildings, caves, etc. and in several years of living in France I never saw one.

Herald

Also new for us were a Nut-tree Tussock, a Garden Carpet and a Waved Umber. The latter two flew off before I could get a photo, but I feel sure there will be others.

Nut-tree Tussock

I could have caled this blog "Pug-awash" (or similar) as there were 13 Pug moths in the trap. These small geometrid moths are the most difficult group to identify as there are several which are similar and many of them are dark forms (melanic) which makes it even worse! I think there were at least 3 different species among them.

With 19 species, this was the best night of the year so far. 3 Twenty-plume moths added a new species to my list here. If you count the plumes you will see that there are only 12 - which is why its Latin name is Alucita hexadactyla.

Twenty-plume Moth