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Moth Gallery

Moths

For me moths are the darlings of my garden, and I plant to attract more of them as much as possible.

Moths are actually on the wing 12 months of the year but they are only visitors here during the spring and summer, I put this down to habitat and lack of trees.
They are beautiful in their own right, you can compare their extraordinary patterns and colours to butterflies any day, it's a misconception they are brown and boring! Often the patterns remind me of stitching in tapestries, especially with the micro moths. Micro moths are "often" a lot smaller than macro moths - but this isn't a rule of thumb and size division, it's down to specific moth families and how they are classified. Actually, I was surprised to find out that The Mother of Pearl is infact a Mico moth, though it is quite large.

Where some moths are as large and colourful as butterflies a good way to tell the difference is by their antennae, our butterflies have clubbed antennae whereas most moths have feather or hairy antennae. Day flying Burnet moths have gradually formed clubbed antennae, but these are not so abruptly formed as butterflies. Most moths actually rest with their wings folded along the sides of their body, where as butterflies rest with their wings open, or closed together above the body.

Not all moths fly at night, in our garden we regularly see Pyrausta arauta (mint moths) and when we are lucky Hummingbird - Hawk moths during the day. Silver Y's (Autographa gamma's) can often be seen during the day, but for some reason they are night visitors to our garden.
Plume Moths, were not instantly recognisable as moths until I start looking for moth ID's and there the were - Plume moths which I always mentally called "T" Insects. When they are at rest they resemble the letter T or an upside down Y with their feathery wings rolled. These are around all year.When they are in flight, their wings look like feathery fans.

In 2006 I noted 21 different species of moths and in 2007, 39 different species - I am hoping for a lot of new moths to the garden for 2008.

Moth Images

All the photo's of moths in the galleries have been taken in situ, going about their business. I don't trap, I have considered it - it would make life easier not having to chase them around late at night with a torch, camera and ladders (this does give the neighbours something to laugh about - their crazy English neighbour!). I expect I would find moths I never even knew came to the garden and would be able to report much higher numbers. But I think doing it my way is part of the fun, it's not easy, especially when they are about 11 foot at the top of the buddleia. It took days and hundreds of attempts to get a half decent image of a hummingbird- Hawkmoth, they hover so fast.
I think the night images against the dark or bright flowers look quite appealing. I have a compact -point and shot type camera, a Canon Powershot A700 and use night mode for the moths. I do have problems with white and yellow moths, there often is flash back refection from their wings. I had a tip which has helped a lot, but hasn't solved this problem - to blue tack a bit of grease proof paper over the flash to defuse it. I like to get moth "in flight" shots, which are quite interesting and this way you can see their full colour, which is often hidden when their wings are closed.

I have really done my best to correctly identify the moths in the gallery, but if you spot a mistake please let me know via the contact page.

Planting for moths

When planting for moths and butterflies, besides the nectar and pollen plants the adults feed on, you have to consider the food plants of the larvae. Moth will lay their eggs on these - often these are so specific, only one type of plant will do. Adults feed through their proboscis, their long tongues.

For me the Buddleia must be the most useful moth attracting plant in the garden, most moths I see are on the Buddleias. This has been so successful I have now added others including Dwarf varieties which are grown in pots. Even the normal ones can be grown in pots as this restricts their growth - as space is a premium. Another great plant has been the Lavender, silver Y's, Large and lesser yellow underwings love it.
I have read that moths prefer white and yellow flowers but I don't think this is necessarily true but they do love the sweet smelling flowers whose scent increases in the evening. Wildflowers and native plants are always going to be preferable for attracting insects of all types, then come the birds and bats, so it makes sense to accomodate the little things!
Hawthorns are a huge moth and butterfly attracter, as a food for adults and larvae. I haven't a hedge, but I am seriously considering planting a hawthorn in a pot this year and hoping!

These are the plants which I have planted and are beneficial to moths in one form or other, they are also great butterfly attracters.
Buddleia, Lavender, Monarda, Red Campion,Red Valerian, Knautia, Verbena bonariensis, Honeysuckle, Malva, Eupatorium, Nepeta, Scabiosa, Foxgloves, Jasmine, Origanum and Echinops.
I planted two honeysuckles in February 2008 and have great hopes for them, an early and a late flowerer to prolong the season. Tobacco plant, didn't work for me but its always listed for moth attracting plants. Night scented stock and evening primrose are on my list to buy this year.

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