NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

On the morning of 2 September 2006 I turned over the final egg box in the garden MV trap (here in Banstead, Surrey) to be surprised and delighted by a Striped Hawk-moth, a decent migrant record especially for a site so far inland. A once in a lifetime back garden capture - or so I thought. Fast forward to the morning of 2 June 2026, same site, same MV trap, with the same result - only this time a Striped Hawk-moth was the first species to be seen, hanging onto the cone of the trap. There are plenty of grizzled old moth trappers who will not record this in their gardens (even coastal ones) so I am understanding of my good fortune. They are smart, as can be seen from the images above and below. I had switched on the trap with a vague (oh alright, strong) hankering after an Eastern Bordered Straw, a species that has been almost invasive during late May and early June (I'd seen three at Dungeness recently). I still live in hope that the odd one may still be floating around. In the same...

What on earth is this staring at us?  Ah, it's trying to merge into its surrounding s now  It's starting to move again - look at the horns on that! This Puss Moth caterpillar caused quite a stir when I found it on a sallow bush at Dungeness back in the summer. Some species look better when not an imago and this is one of them. When I first saw it I showed my ignorance of the larvae of the UK by assuming it must be a hawk-moth. I suppose there are quite a few people out there who think that they know their moths as adults but who would struggle to identify them as larvae, chrysalis or eggs - I'm one of them.