Macro Monday: weathered Feather and Sparkle

Just after the rain


Tiny feather, which has been rained and blown stuck onto the window sill.
(actually, I might have feathered it before on Macro Monday during the summer-in its fresh state of course)


And then the Sun came out...
changing droplets into little diamonds.

The rain has weathered a "vertical feather(ed)" onto the vertical front of the window sill.





If you want to post your macro image(s) too and join the Macro Monday stream, you can sign up with Lisa via her blog, Lisa's Chaos.

Angle Shades Moth, Phlogophora meticulosa

Angle Shades, Phlogophora meticulosa
I really love this Arabic style "head dress"



Apart from the angles on its forewings, (which give it its name) the Angle Shades is unusal in that it rests with wings curved along the side of its body,


Isn't this a sweet little face?






At MothsIreland, a group at Yahoo, I was told that P. meticulosa is a very variable Moth. In these pictures below you can see how variable that can be!
A lovely pink version here and
below
31 January 2008

And 5 days later a visit from a brownish version
05 February 2008
Plus a very pale exemplar.
05 February 2008

And here, this April one which much more resembles the one found last moth.


12 September 2010

Yellow Underwing, Noctua pronuba

Yellow Underwing, Noctua pronuba

In the first week of September, I had two lovely Underwing moths fly in through the window.
First I spotted what I think was a large Moth on the window sill, and as soon as it started moving, I noticed the red triangle of the hindwings, as soon as it would come to rest.

Unfortunately, I was cooking at the time, and trying to capture the Moth into a temporary container,, get the camera from its shelf, (it had been raining, otherwise it lives in the window) keep the food from burning, did not work really. Later that evening I kept looking around to see if I could find this lovely Moth. Because it was all quite very hectic when I had seen it first, I was still not able to describe it properly, apart from the red Underwings. So I was hoping I'd find it the next morning at the window, looking for a way out. All I needed was a few pictures. I'm not even sure if it was a Red Underwing, Catacola nupta. Infact I have the feeling that the red area was bigger and without the two black lines. As I love seeing new Moths, I hate it when I have no photo, and when the meeting was so quick that I was unable to take in all the important features. I had a look at all the other Red-like Underwings, (French Red U., Crimson U, etc.)
Next day? No Moth. Perhaps this has become the first Moth which found its way out of the open window? At around 4.30 the following day, a similarly large Moth arrived on the sill. This time it was very easy to ID as the Yellow Underwing, Noctua pronuba. And I also managed to get a few pictures this time.
Wingspan is about 50-60mm.












A few days earlier, I found a Square Spot Rustic too:

Square-spot rustic, Xestia xanthographa

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly, Aglais urticae

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly, Aglais urticae


At some time in summer, as I was observing and photographing Insect larvae among the Bramble and Nettle, I suddenly spotted the emergence of Small Tortoiseshell Butterflies from the Nettle/Bramble brush a couple of metres from me. There were two at first. Then 2 more, and on it went, one pair at the time, flying up from the same place, and away over the roof of the house (1 storey) to the south or westwards. What really surprised me was that they kept emerging in pairs.
I don't have photos from that day, but I've seen a lot of Small Tortoiseshell this summer, and other people also tell me that they have seen more than last year.

White and Brown Plume Moths.

White Plume Moth, Pterophorus pendtadactyla
Plume Moths are fascinating, I think. Their wings have 4 or 5 segments which have tiny 'feathers' attached.

They are attracted by the Convolvulus (Bindweed) in my garden, and I will often find either a white or a Brown Plume Moth about.
Usually White Plume Moths have a wingspan between 2.5-3cm, but this week I caught a little one of say, 1.5cm.

I have been wondering what the advantages would be for a Moth to have wings like these, in contrast to the more common wing of our ordinary Moths. And where do these wings stand in the long list of evolution.. A kind of "Which came first.. the plumed, and segmented, wing or the structure of a wing consisting of just the one piece. This is all playing around in my head but I just do not have the time to try and find a proper answer to all this.
I'm just hoping to wake up and find that the famous One Day has arrived. Will I be able to finish everything that I hope to do One Day?


Large White plume Moth in my kitchen in July 2009.



This is the usual view of the Wood Brown Plume Moth,. A T shaped Insect, and in fact it looks more like a stick Insect than a Moth!


The Brown Plume Moth, or Wood Brown, as it is called more properly, I believe.
I am glad that I turned back and took a photo from the other side, as I had no idea that some of the wings was visible.



It is surprising that despite their size, Plume Moths (at least in the UK/Ireland) are classified as micro moths.