September is proving to be a month of unexpected insect sightings or maybe I am just noticing the small things that visit my garden.
Ahead of last night’s rain I was in the garden unblocking gutters and checking water butt connections. A moth fluttered between the Delphinium and the Erysimum Bowles Mauve. Its flight was erratic but it was persistent in feeding when it came to land. I had time to pop indoors for the camera and found it finally settling, not on a photogenic flower but the washing line pole.
Plenty of time to both study and photograph it. Its markings were intricate in patterns of brown and it would have found fine camouflage amongst logs. The most noticeable feature, and a clue to its identity, were the large curving pale marks on its upper wings. A silvery sea traced round an island – that was how I saw it. Not a Y but it didn’t take long to recognise this as a Silver Y moth.
It is a late summer immigrant noted for being a day-flying moth. The caterpillar feeds on bedstraws and nettles, clovers and cabbage – all abundant in my garden. It seemed to think the washing pole was a good place to spend the night.
I turned the pole round so the moth was out of the prevailing wind and rain.
This morning it had gone.
