An Evening Exploration

As usual on a Wednesday we started the day by checking the moth trap we had put out last night. Finds today included this early moth, Theria primaria, which becomes active after dusk.

This one, like all the other early moths we catch is a male, as like many moths that are active in the winter months the females are almost wingless and they don’t stray far from their food plant. We thought it would be interesting to see one, so earlier in the week we ventured out in the evening armed with head-torches!  

We found this male early moth in the wild (and on a food plant, in this case, hawthorn).

Going out after dark with a torch seemed to be a particularly good way to spot spiders!

We also found a variety of other creepy crawlies. Examples of our finds include:

Rove beetle

Harvestman

Small snail

Capsid

And these…We’re not quite sure what they/it are/is… Maybe lacewing eggs…?

The beauty of dew was very noticeable in the torchlight. We admired the way these droplets were lined up on a blade of grass.

However, sadly for us, we did not find any female early moths, but here is a photo of one spotted at Foxglove back in 2014!