And the next moth is emerge in my sister's hatchery is this splendid lime hawk moth. It may not be hot pink like the elephant hawk moth, but I think it gives that one a run for its money in the looks department.


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I took these pictures of this lovely small tortoiseshell butterfly in Pembrokeshire a few weeks ago. I love the blue trim on their wings.  From the look of this one, I'd say s/he was not long out chrysalis and just having a little fly around before hibernating for the winter.


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My sister found this enormous caterpillar in the local park. We think its a Poplar Hawk-moth.

( Caterpillar beneath the cut )

( Scary beetle under the cut )

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My sister found this little guy wandering along the pavement.  He's so fat he was probably looking for somewhere to pupate. The picture is a bit blurry because my sister took it on her phone.

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Andy spotted this Goat Moth Caterpillar in Ireland and took pictures for me, which was nice of her considering that she doesn't like insects and these guys certainly ain't pretty. I suspect this one was heading off the pupate. They spend up to five years living inside trees feeding on wood and the adult is one of the heaviest British Moths.

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The Big Butterfly Count

Moths too, but I guess they decided that people like butterflies better and so didn't include moths in the title.

So far I've only added one Peacock butterfly.

While we were on our walk yesterday we noticed that a lot of large black beetles had been wandering across the path and had got squashed. I saw one that was still alive so I stooped down to get it. Andy's not keen on bugs ("You're not going to pick it up are you? Oh"), so she was a bit disconcerted.

This morning I was trying to identify it in my ( Read more... )