Moths at night

Red Underwing at syrup. Still a firm favourite!

Most of us mothers leave our traps overnight, empty them the following morning and photo the tastier (hic) moths in broad daylight. But its always struck me just how different moths look at night, in the light of the trap or in torch light as I search the garden around for moths settled away from the traps. Using a headlamp torch with soft blue-white LED bulbs, I aim this at the moth which allows the camera to fix o nthe subject. I half cover the flash bulb in an attempt to get something near to what each moth looks like in the half-light.


White Satin settled near MV trap.
You can really see where it gets its name from in this shot.


Spectacle settled near MV trap.
You just don't see the shiny scales like this in natural day light.


Fen Wainscot settled near MV trap.
You can see the sheen of its scales well in this shot.

The traps too have their own form in the dark. Its difficult to get a photo of a trap as you see it glowing away in the dark, so you have to use some fill-in flash to get something decent.


15W Actinic trap


15W Actinic trap
You can make out lots of flies and the odd moth on the top cover. The moths are guided downards by the 'vanes' and down through the funnel into the eggbox-lined box.


160W MV trap
Again, you can see the vanes which guide the moths down in to the eggbox-lined chamber.

For a full list of Toadsnatcher's garden moths click here

All images | Nikon Coolpix 995 | © Steve Dudley