June 15th Mousehold Heath

Moth night at Mousehold Heath

Tonight, Take That was playing at Carrow Road. Thousands of people attended it, but all of them missed out on the real entertainment over at Mousehold Heath. It was moth night yet again and just like last time, we had a pretty good selection to look at despite the cold, gusty conditions. There were even bats flying around us and we used a bat detector to listen to them.







Rosy Footman

There were plenty of moths to look at tonight and one of the real highlights was rosy footman. It is a rather beautiful orange-pink moth. To me, the edge of the wing looks like a highlighted pink love heart bordering a black scribbled love message in the centre.














Peach Blossom

Another highlight was this very pretty peach blossom. It's wings are like they were decorated with pink blossom petals, stuck on by a blob of glue in their centres, which creates a translucent view of the brown wing underneath. I suppose you could also describe the pattern as pink fried eggs with brown yolks.



Maiden's Blush



Many moths have truly fantastic names and perhaps one of the best ones is this one. This is a maiden's blush. Why is it called that? I'm not completely sure why, but the blush part is that dark line along the middle, which can be much redder than what you can see here. The rest of the moth is a tea-brown colour with a lot of speckled markings.










Riband Wave



This is a riband wave and belongs to the same family group as the maiden's blush, which is the wave family. Most wave moths have this distinctive wing shape and they are usually spread open when at rest. They also have various lined patterns that differs from species to species. These patterns can be rather showy to very faint. The riband wave has two forms. The one here is one of the more common out of the two forms with three ribbon-like lines across the middle.






 

 

 

 

 

Mottled Beauty

Most species of moth are considered dull, brown and can cause a lot of confusion when trying to tell them apart. Take this mottled beauty. It ticks all the boxes of being dull, brown and confusing. But take a closer look and you can see the subtle pattern of wavy lines and the two faint splodges on it's forewings. Subtle, but beautiful.



Dark Arches



Here's another brown moth for you, a dark arches. Out of all the moths we caught tonight, it is one of the largest. The species is also quite variable. Some can be dark in colour, others more lighter, but they all have the same wing pattern. On each wing there are two kidney-shaped blotches in the centre and a little 'W' at the bottom.

True Lover's Knot

The true lover's knot is another moth with a great name. It is a small but pretty brown moth with distinctive white and cream markings. These markings at a glance appear to twist and turn with one another as if creating a knot. This is a heathland species that thrives on heather.






Scorched Wing

My personal favourite tonight was this scorched wing. It is a very unmistakable moth, you can not confuse it with anything else. It is yellow-brown, riddled with fine lines and appears as if someone singed parts of it's wings, hence the name.

















Common Emerald

Are we sick of brown moths yet? Well here's a green one. It's a common emerald. It is a fairly common species and can be found in gardens, parks, woodlands and heaths. It is also much smaller and brighter green compared to the light emerald, which was also caught tonight.

Light Emerald






Buff Ermine

Finally, here's a lovely buff ermine. It is white with a row of black lines that meets at the centre as well as two other dots at the side. What I like the most about this moth, though, is it's fluffy thorax and head.