Wednesday 13 July 2016

Moths and More at Musselburgh

Two beautiful moths alongside the John Muir Walkway near Musselburgh today, both of which were happy to pose for the camera! This is a six spot burnet moth, a species which I have seen several times and sometimes in number. It is beautifully irridescent and has magnificent antennae! Corrected to state: in fact if you look carefully this is 'missing a spot' and is therefore a narrow bordered 5 spot burnet moth!  



and this second species, which is apparently quite common, but I've never noticed it before, is an antler moth, look at it's beautiful patterning! (Thanks to the Edinburgh Natural  History Society Facebook Group for identifying this for me).

 Plenty of other insects around today, including these red soldier beetles busily making the next generation of red soldier beetles!

And of course, as ever there were plenty of birds around! I enjoyed watching this family of red breasted mergansers, the mother has done well to get so many chicks to this stage, with all the predators around!



7 comments:

Simon Douglas Thompson said...

Fabulous, the burnets have, as you have seen, been very numerous by my work. Antler moth is new to me however!

eileeninmd said...

Hello, the first moth is pretty. The Merganser family is a great sighting. Happy Wednesday, enjoy your day!

A Cuban In London said...

I would have never thought they were moths. They are gorgeous! :-)

Greetings from London.

RG said...

That is a good number of survivors! And a beautiful moth. Our are quite drab.

RG said...

Quite a stunning moth - ours are so drab. Good to see so many survivors - cute bunch.

Pietro Brosio said...

Very nice, well photographed!

Sandy said...

We don't have that moth here, as far as I can see. It really stands out.