Burnished Brass

burnished brassThe burnished brass, Diachhrysia chrysitis, is a moth found ‘almost everywhere’ but typically in gardens and in hedges and on rough ground. One of its foodplants is nettle, so it should feel at home in our garden.

I’d describe its background colour as pale straw with perhaps the slightest tint of lime. burnished brassThe front of the head is ginger in contrast to the mottled brown of its other markings. By breaking up the colour like this and breaking up its shape with tufts and a small cockscomb this moth could pass itself off as a broken off piece of plant debris.

Playing dead, as it helpfully remained while I drew this, it would be perfectly disguised amongst summer leaf litter.

Small Magpie

small magpie mothmagpie mothLike the burnished brass, the small magpie, Eurrhypara hortulata, a micro-moth that is 12mm long with a 2cm wingspan, is found in hedges and in gardens. Its larvae will also feed on nettles.

Any Suggestions?

unknown moth

unknown mothAs usual there were a couple of less distinctive moths in the moth-trap that I’ve been unable to identify. Knowing how variable moths can be in size and colour left me struggling to match this moth with any particular species in the book. It’s tempting to lump puzzlers this as all being variations of that most typical of little brown moths, the uncertain.

But having said that it could in fact be the architypical little grey moth, the imaginatively named grey.

small mothsmall mothJust because I think I won’t be able to identify a moth doesn’t mean that I have to ignore it. This dark little moth with a thin white crescent was about 1cm long.