Bedstraw Hawkmoth

Hawk Surprises

/ nrowberry / 3 Comments

I’d been feeling the need to feed my moth mania for a while now and share some mothy photos, but hadn’t really got a theme in mind. Then this week a surprise moth in the trap provided the necessary inspiration – a blog post about hawks!

I’ve been lucky enough now to see 10 species of hawk-moth in my garden. Most are fairly common, but a couple have been rare migrants that were beyond my mothy dreams. I love all moths, but there’s something really special about spotting a new species of hawk-moth in the trap.

The first hawk-moth I ever saw, before I even got into moths, was the Humming-bird Hawk-moth. These amazing moths, don’t look that exciting when at rest (photo left), but when they take off and buzz from flower to flower, they really do what it says on the tin and look like miniature hummingbirds. I’ve always wondered what these moths were called before we discovered the Americas and saw hummingbirds? They are still a highlight of my summer when they appear, often seeking out the red valerian or the buddleia in the garden.

They’re so quick it’s hard to get a decent photo or video, but here’s a brief clip of one from a few years ago.

The first of the big hawks I ever caught in a moth trap was the Elephant Hawk-moth. It was my first summer of moth trapping and I can still remember the feeling of absolute incredulity that I could have found this incredible big pink moth in my own garden. They still thrill me now and are my go-to moth when people say moths are dull brown things!

I am lucky enough to also get the Small Elephant version, not as big (obviously) and flashy as his counterpart, but a striking beast nonetheless.

The next most common hawk I get is the Poplar Hawk-moth. These large moths appear every summer and have a striking way of holding their wings sort of out from their bodies.

A slightly less frequent visitor is the Lime Hawk-moth. These come in two colour variations. The most common one I get is the typical green and pink form, but I have occasionally had the more unusual brown variant.

The next hawk will always hold a special place in my heart as I managed to raise one from an egg – the Eyed Hawk-moth. I did a whole blog post about Lonesome George (as the egg/caterpillar became known) which you can read here https://toolazytoweed.uk/2019/08/29/lonesome-george/ and https://toolazytoweed.uk/2020/05/22/lonesome-george-born-free/. But for now here’s a photo of him in all his adult glory.

The next hawk I’ve only seen twice in the garden and neither have been exactly pristine specimens, both worn and well passed their best. But still a thrill and totally unexpected to see such a large moth in the trap.

The next one has only graced the moth trap once – a Privet Hawk-moth. This is not a particularly common moth in Worcestershire, so it was a real surprise to get one in the trap. And it was big, much bigger than the other hawks I’ve seen!

The final two hawk-moths were real surprises. Neither are resident in Worcestershire, but are rare migrants, so I’d never dared hope to see them. But in 2019 I saw a few social media posts about Bedstraw Hawk-moths being seen. Each night I’d hope for one to arrive in Malvern, but never really expected it to happen. But then at the beginning of August, I saw it sitting in the trap – a dream come true. It’s surprisingly nerve-wracking getting a moth like this out of the trap – terrified it would fly off before I could get a photo as proof.  But proof I have and I must admit it was glorious to be able to post on social media that a Bedstraw Hawk had deigned to visit my garden. People literally came from miles around to see it.

So I didn’t think I’d ever beat my Bedstraw, but just this week the moth gods favoured me again. I’d been seeing posts from Cornwall with people trapping multiple Striped Hawk-moths, but as a rare migrant I didn’t imagine one would ever reach as far north as Malvern. But the winds must have been blowing in the right direction and on Monday I got up at the crack of dawn to find a Striped Hawk casually sitting in the corner of the trap – unbelievable! I only recognised it because I’d seen the Cornish photos, as otherwise it wouldn’t even have been on my radar as a possibility. Not taking any chances, I took a few photos through the Perspex of the trap, before opening the trap to get it out. Some better photos later on and I could once again bask in moth-envy from my fellow moth-ers.

The West Midlands moth website lists 16 species of hawk-moth, so to have seen 10 species in the garden is pretty amazing.  Of course there are still those moths of legend that I’d love to see – the Convolvulus and Death’s Head Hawk-moths being the ultimate dream moths – but there’s always another moth trap and you never know your luck!

 

Incoming Insects

/ nrowberry / Leave a comment

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks for migrants (of the insect type) in our garden and around Malvern, so I thought I’d collate what we’ve been seeing.

First up an insect that is really only a migrant by name – the Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta). A beautiful dragonfly that used to be fairly uncommon in the UK – hence the name Migrant, but is now well established. This particular one was buzzing for insect prey on some rough ground around Enigma Park in Malvern.

We’ve been blessed with at least one Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui) in the garden most days for the last month or so, but apparently we are not alone. Every few years the country gets a “Painted Lady Summer” when they come over in huge numbers from abroad – and this is one of those summers. Some people have reported seeing them in their hundreds (a friend of mine in Edinburgh got driven inside by having so many of them on her patio it freaked her out!). Sadly we’ve not had that many, probably because we’re the wrong side of the country, so the most we managed to count on the buddleia was 5 at one time. But that’s a record for us, so we’re happy to see them even in low numbers.

We tend to be more lucky with the moths. First a very small migrant moth, but one which some years can come over in huge numbers. The Diamond-back Moth (Plutella xylostella) is only a few mm long, but somehow manages to survive the journey over from the continent and into our Malvern garden. Most years we only get 1 or 2 at a time; the most we’ve ever had in the moth trap in one night is 20, but they can apparently arrive in their thousands. Not the greatest photo of this one below, but you can at least make out the joined up diamond pattern on its back.

A larger macro moth – the Silver Y (Autographa gamma) is another one we see regularly in low numbers. They have a characteristic Y shaped mark on the wings (although admittedly it is upside down) and are often active during the day. The first one I ever saw, was nectaring on some lavender during the day – I thought initially it was a Hummingbird Hawkmoth from the way it moved, but  know better now!

We have seen genuine Hummingbird Hawkmoths this summer, but I’ve not managed to get any photos – they’re just too fast and I’m just too slow most of the time. But here’s one we did manage to catch a couple of years ago.

 

Undoubtedly though the highlight of my moth-ing career so far, and probably the best catch I’ll ever get, was one from a fortnight ago. I’d been enviously enjoying photos of Bedstraw Hawk-moths (Hyles gallii) on various social media for a couple of weeks, but never dreamt I’d be lucky enough to catch one in our garden. But at the beginning of August I got up to empty the trap and nearly fainted at the sight of a Bedstraw Hawk-moth sitting there. I was so nervous opening the trap in case it flew off – no-one would ever believe me unless I could get a photo of it! Fortunately it was a docile beauty that didn’t object too much to being potted up and photographed.

I posted some photos on Facebook and a few fellow moth enthusiasts came round to see it before I released it unharmed. When I put it out on some Rose Bay Willow-Herb, it vibrated its wings for a few seconds to warm up:

Then it shot off like a rocket. We have a large buddleia bush nearby and it circled that a few times. I watched in horror as 3 sparrows flew out from the bush trying to catch it, but thankfully the moth was quicker than the birds and it got away. Don’t think I could have lived with myself if I’d seen it get eaten by the sparrows!

I am told this was only the 5th record of a Bedstraw for Worcestershire and probably the first record for Malvern. I doubt I’ll ever see another one and unless a Death’s Head Hawkmoth lands in the garden, I doubt I’ll ever have a more exciting moth find. But each weekend from now on I will open the moth trap in hope because you just never know what is going to be in there!