Back to the bathroom

[This post has been thrown together in a bit of a hurry, squeezed between bursts of killing things and feeding other things; plus getting ready to have a house full of people over the weekend.]

I can think of better ways to spend my nights than chasing bugs about my bathroom but then again … at least I actually catch some of the bugs. It came as a delightful surprise after a slow week to find at least 9 moths upstairs last night, and at least two being new visitors.

The Small Dusty Wave (of which I had two call) is a bit passe and the same could be said of the pair of plume moths, but one and possibly both the pugs are new. One had a rather salmon tinge to it, but none of the clear dots and lines that would help me to put an ID on it and the other had a distinctly green hue but only in patches and no indisputable V mark on the wings. Perhaps it is just rather faded?

Unidentified pug

Unidentified pug

[1.7.2009, after further time examining the various Pugs that have crossed my window-sill this month I’m inclinded to think these are the Tawny Speckled Pug (top) and Slender Pug (bottom). But I’m very far from certain and would be very, very happy to receive advice.]

 Fat and hairy isn’t my cup of tea but this particular guy posed beautifully to give me a glimpse of the delicately marked under-wings which on previous visits have been kept out of sight when at rest.

Heart and Dart (Agrotis exclamationis)

In fact there were three of them in the bathroom; one looking like it has had a very close encounter with a bird and lost a chunk of a wing.

The final moth last night had found an ideal place to lurk almost perfectly disguised against the white in the bathroom. It is the Clouded Silver (Lomographa temerata) which is fairly common across Britain. Give that, and the fact that the larva feed on hawthorn and blackthorn I’m surprised this is the first time I’ve recorded this moth as a visitor.

Clouded Silver (lomographa temerata)

This morning I have forged a trail of destruction through the strawberry patch and the vines. I found only two more vine weevils and just two slugs. That’s four less pests, now, but it is  a time consuming business to check each plant by hand. Looked at another way though I’m looking forward to picking the first strawberries this weekend!

The only moth I found this morning was another specimen of the pyralid udea olivalis, though a little washed out.

Udea olivalis

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Portrait of a dead slug

The foul weather of mid-May returned with a vengeance, albeit briefly, and there was simply nothing to report; nothing came in and I spent as little time out as possible outdoors. Things have cleared up but the morning walk has turned up nothing much I’m afraid.

I did find this little slug meandering along the edge of a strawberry leaf, and only for want of something else I took a couple of pictures.

Soon to be deceased slug

Then I noticed the damage wrought among the cucumber seedlings by something – I brought the most advanced forensic techniques I have at my disposal to bear (my intuition) and immediately rounded up the nearest available of the usual suspects.

It is now an ex-slug. It is no more, it has ceased to be, it has gone to join its maker, it has etc. etc. etc …

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