Thanks for the info @wild edges, I've just invested in a 70mm (105mm equivalent on my aps-c sized nikon) macro, since most of my photography seems to be about "getting in close" at the mo. Parasitic wasps are fascinating things (I'm fascinated by most small creatures tbf), I think it's a toss-up as to what I would've been happier seeing:
I was happy enough with that wasp, especially as it's an easy to identify one. I would like to have known what the moth was though.
Even better than wasps and moths though are bees, and I was very lucky to find this tiny bee in the house today sheltering from the rain. This is a female White-jawed Yellow-face Bee, Hylaeus confusus, a scarce bee to find in Wales apparently and the 26th bee species I've confirmed in the garden now
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
This moth trap thing isn't quite as straight forward as it looks. It's been running for two hours now and, instead of the trap filling up, the whole of the back wall of my house is peppered with bugs. I guess the light-coloured render reflects the UV from the trap but they're more interested in the wall than the bulb. There's well over 20 species of moth hanging out there already and I don't recognise half of them. This elephant hawk moth was a nice surprise too. I've seen loads of the caterpillars here but never the moth.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Well it turns out the word 'trap' isn't quite correct. I turned the light off at 2am and put the box in the wendy house to avoid the torrential downpours that were forecast. A quick peek inside showed plenty of interesting moths sat on the egg boxes ready to by inspected by daylight in the morning. I got up early like a kid on Christmas day only to find that most had escaped over night and I was left with four moths and a slug to look at. I took a lot of photos of the ones outside the trap though so I still added quite a few species of moth and caddis fly to my garden list from just that one short session. Some highlights:
Lesser Swallow Prominent. Anyone fancy some Viennetta? This was a big moth.
Iron Prominent, with some seriously hairy legs.
Unknown Cruella Deville micro moth
Small Angle Shades
and a nice ruby tiger
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
My new (to me) lens has arrived. Went outside in the rain to test it and came upon this poor little sheltering bumble: is she a buff- or white-tailed, she's a little bit bedraggled
On the whole I'm quite pleased for a 1st attempt, though there's plenty of room for improvement
If I'd left the thing running all night it probably would have held the moths until morning. They hang around the light until they decide it's daylight and they need to hide, then they all tuck up into the egg boxes in theory. The professional survey traps are supposed to retain moths a bit better and they have a daylight sensor switch on the bulb that keeps it running until it's light enough for the moths to go into hide mode. The pro traps are bulky though and I wanted one that packs away flat for storage. I could have put some cloth over the entrance slot though and that would have kept most of them from escaping. From what I've been reading though you can potentially end up with hundreds or thousands of moth to deal with and I worry that I'd create a feast for the birds if I don't manage to keep them all safe until they can be released the following evening. I will be doing some proper citizen-science surveys with it though so I'll have to come up with a plan for that.
If you just want to attract moths though the UV bulb is cheap enough and you can just light up a white wall or old bed sheet with it.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
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Parasitic wasps are fascinating things (I'm fascinated by most small creatures tbf), I think it's a toss-up as to what I would've been happier seeing: