essex naturalist

To be honest, ‘moths around the calendar’ might have been a more accurate title for this post, but didn’t seem to have quite the same ring to it, so ‘clock’ it is.

The fact is that moths can be hardy little creatures, perhaps more so than we might expect. They have among their number those that ensure the flit of lepidopteran wings throughout the year. One might almost say this about butterflies too; I have seen red admiral on the wing in every month and the odd peacock and small tortoiseshell in the depths of winter. These though, would have been roused by unseasonal warmth, tricked from their hibernation. But there are moths that as a matter of course are active though the drear of late autumn and the chill of a winter, that no doubt appreciate those milder spells of their respective seasons, but do not depend on them.

The clues are often in the names, among them the autumnal moth (Epirrita autumnata), November moth (Epirrita dilutata), December Moth (Peocilocampa populi) and winter moth (Operopthera brumata). The last of these I have been seeing around quite a bit just lately, blurring their wings through the all too prompt dusks of the short winter days. They have been, I can be certain, all males, as the females are as good as wingless and spend their evenings wafting potent pheromones into the night air to attract the males to mate.

Winter Moth (Operophtera brumata) – forewing length 13-16mm.

Other, even smaller creautes may chance the winter days, micro-moths that are perhaps more for the mothficianado (sorry about that – can’t resist a pun), but which can be distinctive enough to the less-initiated. The plume moths are generally recognisable with their T-shaped appreance. Some species hibernate as adults and, like the common plume (Emmelina mondactyla), can potential be seen at any time of year. This is also the case with another group of moths, those that belong to the genus Agonopterix. Some of these may be tricky to tell apart, but a few are much easier to ID, like A. alstromeriana.

This time of year is, unsurprisingly, a long way short of being the most productive entomologically, but there is, as you can see, always something to keep an eye out for.

Common Plume (Emmelina monodactyla) – forewing length 9-13mm.

Agonopterix alstromeriana – forewing length 8-10mm.