Plume Moth

This is a variety of Plume Moth, or Platyptilia. There are lots of different varieties so I won't pretend I know exactly which it is. All I know is that it was the one that was taking a break on the dining room wall.

Looking at those wings you might wonder how it is able to generate enough lift to actually fly but what you cannot see is that the full wings are folded underneath and when they are extended in flight they have the sort of profile that you would expect to see.

A Small Dusty Wave

 I very much doubt that when you saw the title of this post  you thought that I was referring to a moth but that is exactly what you have got.

The Small Dusty Wave is a small European moth, varieties of this moth are found across Europe from Moscow in the east to Spain and the Mediterranean, even as far south as Morocco and Tunisia (so it is not limited to Europe). They are quite common in England and Wales, they are found in the east of Scotland only and they are rare in Ireland.

Small and dusty is a good description, this specimen has a wingspan of just 17mm typically they are between 19 -21mm and it would be easy to miss it laying flat against the wall of my house.

It was easy enough to get the shot from above but getting the face on shots was quite tricky simply because it was pressed so flat against the wall it was hard to get a good angle. You can see that I used a very narrow field of view thanks to my Canon 100mm Macro lens.

Good deeds abound...

So this morning while out on a bike ride with my son we came across a large group of brightly clad cyclists ranging in age from about 10 to 110(not quite). As we approached they moved apart like the parting of the Red Sea to let us past. Just after we had passed one of the group called after us to see if we had an Allen key. Which as you can see from the first picture I did.  I was able help one of the young cyclists raise his seat so that the whole group could get under way.
Thanking me for my assistance one of the leaders of the group commented that normally they would have brought some tools with them but today no one had.  I then realised that this was a local scout troop out together.  Not one of them it seems live true to their motto.

The second of today's pictures is more in keeping with the general trend for my blog and shows a very unusual moth which was resting on a forest path.