The mapgpie and the sexton

 With Ikea building still going on it was good to escape for a short while yesterday and go blackberrying in the woods behind our home - and in the course of picking these juicy shining berries I was lucky enought to see a ruddy darter and a southern hawker, but the ponds are very dry there. There were good numbers of butterflies and indeed we have had several peacock and red admirals on our garden buddleia. But the last two evenings having been warm I put my moth trap out and have been rewarded by good numbers of creatures and some lovely colours- which of course makes them easier to identify.

 The greeny yellow of this first moth helps a lot! It is the brimstone moth and is said to be very common and in this part of the world there can be three broods a year. Its not as delicate looking as its butterfly counterpart, but still eyecatching - and there have been several of these in the trap. Alongside several pepper moths was this common white wave moth - a more butterfly like creature than some of its kind.

And then the lime-specked pug- a group I have not looked at much, but the wide open wings held away from the body are the characteristics of this particular creature. 

And another moth that in the past I would have thought to be some kind of butterfly but this is a moth- the Magpie Moth. The books says it "unmistakable" - good for me against the various mottles and brown moths I have yet to identify and it is very pretty. Again a common creature- but not one I had seen until this week. It tends to act dead when trapped - it was good to read this and watch the little insect recover and fly off with no problems.

And last but not least- other insects also go into the trap - often beetles. wasps and daddy long legs. Today there was this large Rove bettle  named Nicrophorus Investogator- some books also refer to it as being one of the Sexton beetles- the link being just as sextons dig graves these bury food  - the dead bodies of young birds or mamamls and lay their eggs on- the rotting remains then being for their larvae to dine on. They are said to be able to smell a dead body at 2 miles. It made a very strange creaking noise when disturbed and I cannot say I was much endeared to t- although to everything there is a place. Back to dragonflies I think- and another treat last evening as sitting on our terrace with a nice glass of chilled white wine a large southern hawker hunted around us for a good 15 minutes - much prefer this to the Sexton!