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| Shuttle-shaped Dart (Agrotis puta) |
The Shuttle-shaped Dart has been seen in York Museum Gardens over most of the summer, but hardly at all in Coxwold. This is a particularly bright example showing the pointed-ends to the pale oval marking that has been interpreted as a shuttle - the weaving kind. The meaning of the scientific name is open to interpretation: agrotis - from the Greek for 'of the field', or 'a countryman'; the second part of the binomial is puta which has a variety of possible derivations: 1. Puta - the goddess who oversees the pruning of trees; 2. pure; 3. from puto - to think; or perhaps from puteus meaning a well. (There is another meaning in Spanish.) Take your pick.
Our countryman is found in a plastic palace amidst Autumn crocuses until its release this evening.
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| Flame Carpet (Xanthorhoe designata) |
The other already recorded moth (but not photographed before) is the Flame Carpet. This moth wouldn't stay still for a moment so had to be snapped in a collecting tube. The Latin name can be interpreted as 'clearly defined yellow stream' - which doesn't really apply to the Flame Carpet.
