Wow! Blue Underwing :-) (1 Viewer)

[Fuchsia]

Hello,
I was about to have an early night when I spotted the most amazing and enormous moth ever (excluding those in Butterfly/Moth centres etc) drawn to the lamp.
Here it is, Clifden Nonpareil (Catocala fraxini).
A bit worn but still beautiful.

Jen :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

 

[Surreybirder]

lovely!
Living in France has its advantages!
Ken

 

[Angus T]

Fantastic,
one for my dreams!

 

[harry eales]

Hello,
I was about to have an early night when I spotted the most amazing and enormous moth ever (excluding those in Butterfly/Moth centres etc) drawn to the lamp.
Here it is, Clifden Nonpareil (Catocala fraxini).
A bit worn but still beautiful.

Jen :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

Congratulations Jen, :t:

I'll never forget the night my one and only specimen came to a light trap I was demonstrating at a public event. Over 60 people had a very good look at it, as it landed on the table next to the portable Heath trap.

Unfortunately it was a male and I couldn't breed from it. It was only the fifth or sixth specimen ever recorded in Northumberland.

Harry

 

[CJW]

Superb! I'm 'well jealous'.

 

[Fuchsia]

It was only the fifth or sixth specimen ever recorded in Northumberland.

Harry

Excellent Harry,
I have no idea how to sex a moth but just the thought of breeding them is incredible.

 

[harry eales]

Excellent Harry,
I have no idea how to sex a moth but just the thought of breeding them is incredible.

Hello Jen,

It's nearly thirty years since I bred this species, I obtained some ova from the original Ham Street Woods colony in Kent. They produce very large larvae but the pupa is even more magnificent. It's covered with a bloom of purpleish/ blue, just like that you can find on an untouched black grape.

If you still have your specimen, try putting it into a large box (a shoe box will do) with some freshly cut twigs of Aspen, failing that try Poplar, If yours is a (Ahem) pregnant female she should lay.

They are very easy to rear. Watching them emerge and expand their wings is a memory that lasts a lifetime.

Harry.

 

[Fuchsia]

If you still have your specimen, try putting it into a large box (a shoe box will do) with some freshly cut twigs of Aspen, failing that try Poplar, If yours is a (Ahem) pregnant female she should lay.

They are very easy to rear. Watching them emerge and expand their wings is a memory that lasts a lifetime.

Harry.

You'll think I'm very soft but I was upset yesterday when one of my cats jumped up on the window ledge and squished my first Pink-barred Sallow, so I turned the lamp off to let my big blue beauty go safely away.
Hopefully next year, when the house is finished and there is room, I'll set up a proper trap and get scoffing some Ferrero Rocher for tanks. Then of course I'll never see one again!

 

[very boring banned member]

Few weeks go this came to my garden light. Today we've had minus 5 C. Not much moths anymore.

 

[Fuchsia]

Ooh look - yours has got all it's little white bits intact! Very very nice!
Not quite -5 here but non stop rain. Bah.

 

[harry eales]

You'll think I'm very soft but I was upset yesterday when one of my cats jumped up on the window ledge and squished my first Pink-barred Sallow, so I turned the lamp off to let my big blue beauty go safely away.
Hopefully next year, when the house is finished and there is room, I'll set up a proper trap and get scoffing some Ferrero Rocher for tanks. Then of course I'll never see one again!

Hello Jen :hi:

I'm afraid cats get very short shrift around here, they're a menace around breeding cages, and light traps. If you want to breed larvae to the adult stage you going to have to find an area that the cats can't get access too.

I usually find that if you bounce a half brick off their head they don't come back again. I'm getting pretty accurate up to about 25 yards. A pressure hose sometimes works wonders as well.

A large part of my garden is taken up with various cages or pots with growing food plants in them, etc, and the local moggies used to come and claw open the netting to get at the larva, or just try to sharpen their claws on it. Either way it doesn't do the breeding cages any good. :storm:

Nowadays they know better, and run for their lives if they see me within a hundred yards of them.

I'm sorry if I have offended any cat lovers, but they (the cats) upset me.

Harry

 

[Surreybirder]

Few weeks go this came to my garden light. Today we've had minus 5 C. Not much moths anymore.

Lovely shot, Karwin.
I had two more merveille du jour last night but not a lot else--a satellite and a couple of as-yet unidentified carpets was about it.
Ken

 

[Fuchsia]

Two More?????!!!!!!!!

:storm: