Having caught my first garden record of Green silver lines earlier in the year (right), I was very pleased to find a second brood Scarce silver lines (below) this morning.  Again, outside the trap; it really pays to get up early and check the moths that have settled around the trap before they get picked off by wasps, birds or frogs!  

I took a battery powered LED lamp and a white sheet to Northern Madagascar in August 2026.  Here are some of the moths I encountered.  Many are oddly similar to European species.

After waiting for 44 years of trapping, I had a second Convolvulus hawk in 4 nights!  There must be a large influx of them to our shores!  

The Convolvulus hawkmoth has been at the top of my wish list for years.  A rare and spectacular immigrant moth, it turns up infrequently on our shores.  I have never caught one before.  They are known to be attracted to the scent of Nicotiana flowers and so I grew hundreds of these plants, starting from seed in March 2026! The bank of flowers produces a very strong scent in the evenings and it was right next to these plants that this wonderful moth appeared on Friday night.  Very satisfying when a plan works out!

The clearwings are an amazing group of moths.  They mimic various different wasps and are day-flying.  They were previously very under recorded as they do not normally come to light.  The arrival of pheromone lures (you can buy some from ALS) has been a game changer.  This year, I have lured and photographed nine different species in my garden in Abingdon.  The only one missing is the Hornet clearwing (right), although I have trapped this species for both of the last two years.  I think the flight period for this species is over now (particularly with the hot dry weather) and so I am going to publish the nine species found in the garden in 2026.

The red valarian plant, which I introduced to my garden a couple of years ago has self-seeded everywhere.  It is highly attractive to the Hummingbird hawkmoth which I have now seen on three occasions already this year.  On Friday evening, it flew into the house and couldn't find its way out.  This gave me the opportunity to photograph it.  Such a stunning moth, although even more impressive when it is hovering by the flower, feeding using its long proboscis.  The problem is trying to get a photo of it as it moves so quickly!

Four species of emerald so far this year, but only two species at home.  Pictured here are the Common emerald (below), Blotched emerald (right), Small emerald (bottom left) and Large emerald (bottom right). 

The Leopard moth is an annual visitor but never in large numbers.  It normally settled outside the trap.  It has a huge head with 6 black spots set in dense white fluffy hairs that resemble wool.  The spots in close up have a blue iridescence that is spectacular.  The wings have black spots against white scales but the density and type of scale changes to make the wings more transparent towards the tip. This may have evolved to showcase the long abdomen which curls up when threatened.

So far this year, I have trapped eight species of hawk moth.  Seven are regular species, coming every year.  These are the Privet hawk (the larges native moth), Poplar hawk, Eyed hawk, Lime hawk, Pine hawk, Elephant hawk and Small elephant hawk.  The heatwave at the end of May brought be my 2nd and 3rd ever Striped hawkmoth too (see previous blog post).

This clearwing moth is a great mimic of a hornet.  It even moves and behaves like a hornet when disturbed.

Another exciting way to attract moths is to use a pheromone lure.  The Clearwing family of moths are day-flying and are not attracted to light and were thought to be incredibly rare before specific lures were designed to imitate the pheromones emitted by females to attract males.  One that was thought to be extinct in the UK since 1924, until its rediscovery first in Warwickshire in 2021 and then near me in Tubney in 2023, is the Dusky clearwing.  This is an amazing wasp mimic - a brilliant trick to avoid predation!

The very warm weather and southerly winds brought some very interesting moths to the garden.  Of particular note were two Striped hawkmoths (one pictured right) and two Eastern bordered straw moths (below).  Neither breed in this country and the Eastern bordered straw is new for me.