Quite surprised when this dragonfly landed on the edge of the open window next to my desk! I think it is a female ruddy darter, but I wouldn’t swear to it. The thing buzzed off when I tried to reach my camera-arm out through the window.
Just about public enemy no.1 in gardening circles this year is the box-tree moth. It’s caterpillars ravage the box shrubs so beloved of formal gardeners. It was introduced from Asia, accidentally apparently, and first recorded in the UK in Kent in 2007. I have never seen or heard of them before this year, but I have seen two or three around the warehouse walls at work, and one in the alley behind my house. They seem to be easily disturbed though, and are therefore a bit tricky to photograph, close up at least. Today I found at least half a dozen around the warehouse, all too high up for me to reach apart from one – I took a distance shot of it, but as soon as I moved in it got spooked and flew off.
Their colouring makes them difficult to photograph too, as the bright white in the centre always seems to over-expose. I did, however, manage to get some reasonable shots using zoom, of a specimen 10 or 12 feet from the ground. So here we have – my first record of a box-tree moth.
Found this nice caddis fly on the warehouse wall too – about 2cm long and could easily be mistaken for a moth, this is the adult of the children’s-book-favourite caddis larva, that lives underwater and covers itself with a casing of sand, grit and tiny twigs.
And then while I am about it, probably my best-ever shot of what is probably a common plume moth, and a reasonably decent one of a beautiful plume, which is actually about half the size.
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See also:
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