"The Night Visitors"

The weather is warming...
slowly...
v..e...r....y....
slowly.
Too slowly for things "potager"-wise....

But it is bringing out the moths...
and Monday night we had two lovely visitors...
firstly a few pictures of the Giant Peacock Moth [Saturnia pyri] Grand-Paon-de-nuit.
We had them around, around this time last year, so keep your eyes open local folks... or those further south... as Susan pointed out to me last year, these are really on the Northerly edge of their range...

The cat can't believe it!!
Another one, just like last year...
she then asked to go outside...
but, on sniffing the air, decided not!!

Most definitely a male... just look at those "comb-like" antennae... but, read on...

"She's" probably pumping out pheromones... hoping a male will be downwind...
how far downwind I know not... but with the size of those wings...
he might well be many miles away and still reach her...
despite not being able to feed.

Normally it is the male that has the feathery antennae to detect the female's pheromones... but as "he" was still here this morning... and warming up too fast in the morning sunlight [yes... sunlight, folks]... I moved it into a more shaded position... and noticed that "she" had the big, rounded, bulbous body of a female... so, she-he... I'm now not sure...

A cuddly moth?

Or just plain strokeable???

Or... is it an alien??

It is trying to get in!!!

Hope it hasn't got a glasscutter!!!!

The other visitor was equally striking....
a Cream-spot Tiger [Arctia villica / Epicallia villica] Écaille villageoise
We get five different species of Tiger here... Garden, Jersey, Scarlet and Ruby being the other four.
But the Scarlet is the rarest and the Cream-spot follows close behind... this is only the third "known" visit.

Posing with a sloughed snakeskin... but keeping well out of the way of the Black & White moth-muncher anyway!!

Here the striking orange hindwings are being flashed...

... and now the bright scarlet body... these colours are to warn predators that...
"I don't really taste very nice... so go and eat something else... please!!"

I managed to catch this one and get it outside... but it came back to the window...

How's this for a striking colour display?!

and yesterday morning it was still on the front step so I managed to get a few shots of it without using the flash...

Handsome from the side isn't he...

But I'm not sure what he can hide on wearing this jacket!!

He was right where a foot was likely to smear him all over the front step, so I carefully moved him to the ground at the side and managed this final shot into the bargain!

Camouflaged? I think not... perhaps that is why the warning colours are so striking??

A mainly "Picture Post".... but I've tried to put in some relevant information as well...san
and  Susan says it has another trick up its sleeve... an anti-bat sonic avoidance technique...

Things that go "BONK" in the night!

We've been amazed recently by things hitting the windows of an evening.... in this first post I'll concentrate on the moths [Papillons du Nuit].
The most exciting was a Giant Peacock Moth [Saturnia pyri] Grand-Paon-de-nuit which visited on the 11th... absolutely huge, it was at least 15cm [3"] across....

Now that's more my size of prey!

They don't normally have this sparkle, do they?

Hey, Mum... have you seen this!
The cat's heads and the Fox Moth give scale to this magnificent moth.

...it had the full attention of the cats... but was very difficult to photograph... it wouldn't stop flying around.
Most of the other moths have been far more sedentary... settling for long periods.
But it did eventually settle for a moment.... and I got a lovely shot of it on our step.

The step is 27cms left to right.

This male is at the North of its range... it is, like most of the Saturniidae born without mouthparts, so is on the way out the moment it emerges from the pupal case. The young feed on Blackthorn [Prunus spinosa] Epine Noire or Prunelle of which we have plenty, as well as Ash and various other trees.
I found the remains of another that had probably fed a bat, by the Mairie in Grand Pressigny - a full hindwing and a few shreds of the others. [27/05/12 - Also a front wing by our back door... the front rib of which is constructional strength steel.... by the feel of it. The colours of the two wings are much faded when compared with these pix, too.]

A second member of the Saturniidae that has been around is the Fox Moth [Macrothylacia rubi] Bombyx de la ronce... we get loads of these. They really are daft creatures... laying eggs on our doors like the Emperor Moth on our window [blogged about here  and one that Susan wrote about here]... the titchy caterpillars have to cross three metres of bare calcaire! An adult female can be seen in [above pic] which then went on to start laying much to the amazement of our RonRon as she had noticed a male that was still trying to mate... so she tried to separate them...

What's going on here?

That can't be right!
[the female is the lower one and the eggs are
the pale dots on the door frame beneath her.]

Better separate them then...?

fortunately there was glass in the way, as I think what she had on her mind was a bit more permanant than "Go away!" A mouth full of moth wing scales... yuck!

Another visitor was an Eyed Hawkmoth [Smerinthus ocellata] Sphinx Demi-Paon...

...we usually have our attention drawn to where the 'bonking' is coming from by the cats!!
This was no exception... RonRon the 'scientist' made a mad dash across the tops of the work surfaces to the kitchen window... before being told off... but by the time I'd managed to get the camera and get outside, it had moved to the lounge window... lower and more convenient for photography.

You can see here the eye is just visible...

Eyed Hawkmoth female.

This and the Poplar Hawkmoth have a strange wing profile.

and after taking a picture to show the upper wings better...
I risked holding the wings open to show the eyes more clearly....

Still not perfect, but I didn't want to damage her!

Surprisingly, she didn't object!!

As mentioned before, we get lots of 'night visitors' and here are a few more in no particular order!

Lunar Thorn or Purple Thorn moth [Selinia spp]

The same Lunar Thorn or Purple Thorn moth [Selinia spp],
a couple of ichneumon flies [Ophion luteus & Lissonota setosa] and a micromoth.

Ichneumon fly [Ophion luteus /Ophion sp.]

An Art Deco micromoth and some more night visitors including an ichneumon.

Moth in a smoking jacket!
Peach Blossom Moth [Thyatira batis] La Batis

The next night visitors post will be on beetles.... things that really go BONK on the glass, floor, lampshade, etc...etc...etc!