Pembury, 20th June 2010

Elephant Hawkmoth - always stunning.


White Satin - head on shot here - lovely moth.




Swallow Prominent - note how far the top white bar extends up the fore-wing compared to Lesser.


'My' Rannoch Looper - rather worn and un-stunning. But its rare(ish)!



Small Angle Shades

A selection of moths from last night at Hawkwell Farm, Pembury.

Rannock Loopers at St Margaret's at Cliffe

Two Rannock Loopers at St Margaret's on 18/6/2010, subtly different to each other, but I think they are both males, as the females have much stronger cross lines.

First Specimen.

Rannoch Looper (Itame brunneata)

Second Specimen.

Rannoch Looper, Biddenden

"I missed out during last year's influx of Rannoch Looper so was very pleased to catch this specimen last night - the 427th species of macro moth at this site in just seven seasons. The strong NE winds presumably pushed it this way. There must be others out there" Steve Broyd

Rannoch Looper

I caught this Geometer on June 9th and took a while to realise it was a Rannoch Looper ( Itame brunneata), this seems to be the moth of the year so far, with a lot of records in Kent.

Normally Rannoch Loopers are restricted to the mature woodland areas of central Scotland, but they are also scarce migrants from the continent and they have been a lot of records this year, mostly from Coastal Counties but some further inland. This is probably a male as the cross lines are quite indistinct. Down the road at Kingsdown Nigel Jarman caught five on the 9th June, and I think has had a couple since.

Getting up to date there have been a few Barred Straws (Eulithis pyraliata) in the traps during the last couple of days. This nice pristine speciman was caught on June 30th.

Both moths were caught in my garden at St Margaret's at Cliffe.