Thursday July 21

The last few days have been intolerably hot, and especially warm at night.

In previous years this would have meant an opportunity to catch and identify moths in our bathroom. So since last Friday night I have been expecting something impressive to turn up.

Day 1: A Cranefly - either Tipula oleracea or Tipula palidosa. I know absolutely nothing about Craneflies so the insect was photographed in a pot the following morning before research told me it was a male (which was bad news because it meant the only way to identify it was to count the segments in the antennae). The photo wasn't sharp enough.

Day 2: A small moth I had seen before, but forgotten how to identify. It escaped the following morning, but my poorly focussed shot told me it was a Light Brown Apple Moth. It is described as an adventive Australian moth first discovered in Cornwall in 1936.

Day 3: Slightly more hopeful, but still just micro-moths.

Carcina quercana 

 Codling Moth - Cydia pomonella 

These are both common moths, the latter being the first I have identified, but not too surprising as we have a ruddy great apple tree in the garden.

The thing that concerns us is the apparent shortage of bumblebees and butterflies which are normally carpeting our Lavender and Buddleia at this time of the year.

Hopefully things will soon pick up.