31 July 2018 - Black and White Moths

Ypsolopha sequella

The heavy rains this weekend were welcome after such a long dry spell, and I swear I could hear the entire garden breathe a deep sigh of relief. Ever dutiful to our moth-catching responsibilities, Patrick and I did not let the winds or rain deter us from setting up a trap on both Friday and Sunday nights. The process was a bit more involved, requiring us to set up a tent around the trap to protect it and the creatures inside from a watery doom. But in the end all was well, and as I write this post the sun reigns over Shandy Hall once again, and I’ve a few interesting moths to talk about.

This moth is Ypsolopha sequella, a perky and energetic little fellow who hasn’t visited the garden since September 2012. Its calico-like pattern is striking, and when we caught it in a tube it did a series of impressive jumps and flips. It is fairly common across Britain, despite its long absence from Shandy Hall, and lives in woodlands feeding on Field Maple and occasionally Sycamore. Ypsolopha means high-crested, while sequella means ‘following’ or ‘next,’ for no discernible reason other than it might have been ‘the next’ moth for Clerck to discover. 

Marbled Beauty (Cryphia domestica)

Another moth was the Marbled Beauty (Cryphia domestica), a delicate insect with a strong, intricate pattern. It feeds on lichens growing on rocks, walls, roofs and trees, and it often associated with old buildings and urban areas even though it also inhabits open country, orchards, calcareous woods and coastal cliffs. Its name is charming, with Cryphia meaning ‘hidden’ or ‘secret’ from the cryptic pattern on its forewings, and domestica means ‘belonging to the house,’ from its tendency to eat the lichen growing on houses.

Sunday night’s trap was not at all fruitful –perhaps because of the dropping temperatures, strong winds and relentless rains— and there is not much to report from it. There were a handful of moths, the most numerous being Garden Grass Veneers, Footmen (of both the Common and Melon Seed variety), and Dun-bars.

So, not the most exciting start to my final week at Shandy Hall –but I’m happy just to have seen some rain before I go.

Post by Gabriella Morace [UPenn intern] 

13 July 2014 - A Moth of Contrasts

Marbled Beauty (Cryphia domestica)

Yesterday we recorded a visit from the Marbled Beauty - a moth already listed but not photographed before.  The moth's scientific name, Cryphia domestica is a strange juxtaposition of words.  Domestica describes everything that belongs to a house : the hearth, the fireplace, the dinner-table, the softly glowing lamp and perhaps even the lichens on the outside walls which the Marbled Beauty feeds upon.  Cryphia, in contrast, describes the hidden, mysterious and arcane.  The somber colours of the moth's wings and body are the likely inspiration for this.  The outer edges of the moth's wings are defined by a distinctive band of black and white segments, like railway lines on an old map.  

The overall wing pattern is largely geometrical and reminds me of a Roman tiled floor I once saw in an exhibiton about Pompeii.  The mosaic had once decorated the interior of a sumptuous Roman household, but had been unearthed from the depths of volcanic dust.  It had witnessed vibrant society but had also endured years of silence and neglect - the mysterious and the ordinary combined. 

Marbled Beauty (illustration)

The moth (illustrated above) tends to run if disturbed - an unusual tactic.

Post by Bowen Chang (UPenn)

8 January 2015 - New for Yorkshire Region - and Billy Collins Haiku

(Calybites phasianipennella)

This slight and highly decorative insect flew into the trap in the Museum Gardens in York last July where it was identified as (Calybites phasianipennella) and posted on the blog.  What we didn't know was that it hadn't been recorded in this neck of the woods before.  For statistical purposes, Yorkshire is divided into five separate areas VC61-VC65 and the Museum Gardens is in VC62.  Had I been recording the species directly into the database (MapMate) rather than using a written list, the fact that Calybites was new to that region would have been immediately apparent. (I had been putting off using MapMate as it is anything but simple.)  Thanks to Charlie Fletcher's end-of-the-year checking of the species lists that had been submitted, followed by searching questions and requesting photographic evidence, we discovered, just this week, that Calybites was a first.
An excellent start to the year.

Marbled Beauty (Cryphia domestica)

Posting the news of Calybites gives the opportunity to introduce the idea of observing moths in a slightly different way.  To give each species of moth its correct common and scientific name is not an easy thing to do and requires close observation.  Some species are straightforward and cannot really be incorrectly identified (Ghost Moth, Scarce Silver-lines, Poplar Hawk-moth, for example) while others are extremely variable.  Arriving in the trap cloaked in different shades of brown or sometimes losing or gaining patterns and markings, the amateur has to rely on the knowledge of the experienced moth-trapper.  My referees are Dave Chesmore and Charlie Fletcher and were it not for their help the list of 360 species at Shandy Hall would be far from accurate.

However, show a moth to a writer of haiku (that precise and condensed form of poetic expression) and other possibilities arise.

The haiku below (written for the Marbled Beauty moth above) is by Billy Collins (American Poet Laureate 2001-2003) and is one of a number written specially for a project with The Laurence Sterne Trust.

Marbled Beauty
In your grey and white
wings, is there one face
or one for every viewer?