Paul's Back Garden Safari

The other week I found a small moth in the light trap, and I had a little difficulty in finding an identification. It turns out I was being my usual stupid self, and had missed the obvious candidate. The temporary mystery moth turned out to be a Bee Moth, Aphomia sociella. It is also known as the Wax Moth, but this can cause confusion with another species,   Galleria mellonella . So for now we'll just continue to call it the Bee Moth. Now this little chap has quite an interesting life cycle. Bee moths are not very large. And the males and females are different. Females are 33 mm long, have olive-grey forewings with pinkish central area and a large and a small black spots. Males are 35 mm long, have more contrasting colours on their forewings, mainly whitish and brown, with a zigzagging line over the middle.  I think from this description that my visitor on this occasion was a female. The adult moths are nocturnal and can be attracted to light, and ...

The light trap popped up with a real cracker this weekend when I uncovered a Buff Arches (Habrosyne pyritoides) toward the bottom. The colours and markings are superb. I think is my new favourite. It has one generation with a flight season from Late June through to early August. The larva feed on Brambles, which we have some growing in the hedge, but it has also been reported to feed on raspberry in captivity. And we have raspberry and cultivated blackberry in the veg patch. The NBN (National Biodiversity Network) Gateway distribution map shows that Buff Arches is fairly common in the southern part of the UK (1). 1: https://data.nbn.org.uk/Taxa/NBNSYS0000005725/Grid_Map a