Thursday 30 September 2010

More clockwork

Last night no fewer than 5 specimens of the November/Autumnal moth came to light. It just so happens that the previous night was the coldest since springtime, so I have no doubt that these species are triggered by temperature. There are four species in contention here: November Moth, Pale November Moth, Autumnal Moth and Small Autumnal moth. Identification is mainly done through dissection, so we tend to record these as Epirrita agg.


I rather liked this shot of the Nematus larvae fighting over the last tiny remnant of the Willow leaf. They will now have moved on to the next leaf down the branch.


2 comments:

The Weaver of Grass said...

Are those larvae doing some weird dance Stuart - they sure look as though they are.

Gill said...

I dunno - it'd be fun to see a video of them wouldn't it?