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So who stole the summer and replaced it with a rainy season where the weather and the economic forecasts were as gloomy as each other? In this year’s deluge, what happened to all those strange and delicate creatures with evocative names such as Hebrew Character and Chinese character? I’m not talking about Moses and Bruce Lee, I’m talking about Moths.
This summer may have been a washout for Moths but now September’s here there’s a new wave of arrivals from far away. Britain has around two and a half thousand recorded Moth species and 10 per cent of them are immigrants from continental Europe and Africa.
Some of these get here through generational hops - breeding further north in stages until they make it across the Channel. Some flutter into warm air pockets in west Africa or are swept up by Saharan sandstorms and blown all the way. Many of these immigrants will try to breed here but their caterpillars won't survive our winters. And yet they come, as the poet Robert Frost wrote, “lured with false hope, to make the venture of eternity”.
The Old World Web Worm arrives from subtropical Africa. It looks like a tiny scrap of parchment encrypted with mysterious text but you wouldn’t want it in your cabbages. The Old World Web Worms its way into the world-wide web and if you check out the Atropos site you’ll find the latest records of Moth arrivals:
Silver Y, Four-spotted Footman, Rush Veneer, Diamond Back, White Point, Dark Sword Grass, Pale-mottled Willow, Dark-mottled Willow, the Vestal, the Delicate, Golden Twin-spot, Dewick’s Plusia, Pearly Underwing, Scarce-bordered Straw, Rusty Dot Pearl and the exotic Clifden Nonpareil.
These names, conjured from the imaginations of Georgian and Victorian naturalists, are inspired by the beautiful and intriguing diversity of moth form, colour and patterning. These are often tiny, overlooked insects but perhaps the most exciting arrivals are the Hawk Moths: Convolvulous, Hummingbird, Striped and the most enigmatic of all insects, the Deaths Head Hawk-moth. There are no records this year yet of this gothic creature of the night which flies on 13cm wings from southern Europe, steals honey from beehives, emits a ghoulish squeak if disturbed and carries the grinning skull insignia on its back.
So whoever stole summer this year and drowned out all those beautiful creatures, beware. The revenge of the Moths is coming and the Deaths Head is on it’s way.
Further Reading:
Last report: Brett looks for Moths on the Lizard
Submit your Moth sightings to Atropos and our Gardenwatch project
How to upload your photos to The Garden species page
Delve deeper into the world of Moths at Butterfly Conservation