St. Swithun's Day if thou dost rain, for forty days it will remain...

And so the rain has gone on, with periodic spells of sweltering, humid sunshine. Nonetheless, with July almost over it was high time for some mid-summer mothing. The trap has been on for the past two nights. After some heavy predation by the lizards and a bit of clumsy potting, here are the photographs of the remaining moths. Of course, the star of the show was our noisy cicada (or 'avocado' as William preferred to call it) who was happily released back into the garden, slightly confused but none the worse for wear.

Water, water, every where

Hurricane Season has arrived and with it came the rain. So much rain that we yummy mummies in our 4x4s look entirely practical ploughing through the puddles to get the kids from school. While it is not great for moths, the rain is drawing many other creatures out of hiding. Happy families of snails line our driveway and we are beset by mosquitoes - as big and black as houseflies - which audibly pop and leave great red spatter marks when you swat them.

The Cuban tree frogs are in song and the land crabs are using this time to migrate. Fat crabs, thin crabs, hairy crabs and smooth crabs. Orange crabs, yellow crabs, pink crabs and blue crabs  Some of the braver ones have made their way into our garden, past our crab-crazed dog.  Many of the faster crabs made it all the way to the other side.

I have to wonder what effect the development of the land is having on the crab population - certainly there are still plenty of them but surely the houses, fences, cars and pets are making their migration ever more precarious? People are a direct threat too - apparently they are good eating, if you keep them in a bin and feed them mangoes for a while before you cook them up!

Perhaps the least desirable effect of the rain is that it has driven a couple of scorpions under our front door in their search for shelter. I'm not overly happy about playing scorpion hide-and-seek until this weather improves...

So, no mothing but a few nice creature pics to share:

In lieu of massive colourful moths...

Here are a couple of things the East of England doesn't have to offer: A beautiful sun halo which loomed over us for a full hour one May afternoon and an incredible Glowing Click Beetle. Found floating on a raft of dog-toy-stuffing in our pool. His two 'headlights' caught my attention as they are stunningly bright - very cool, maybe I should take up beetling....

Sun Halo

Glowing Click Beetle.

Not my beetle pics (I was too busy giving it the kiss of life)

- check out ukcostaricafieldcourse.blogspot.com and 123rf.com for original postings. 

Mothing much to report...

... a few more in the trap but not as many as anticipated. Could it really be true that Bedfordshire has more exciting moths than the Caymans? Perhaps worth mentioning to the Beds tourist board.

By the light of the moon, a little trap sat on a balcony

On Monday the trap was watched by one greedy tree frog. On Tuesday the trap was watched by two greedy tree frogs... and a light sensitive husband who pulled the plug at around 11pm. Insult to injury was finding the trap entirely empty save for one black crispy looking frog poo. Do the moths simply untrap themselves if the lights are turned off or did those fat frogs manage to squeeze inside somehow? Disappointing. I caught one in a pot earlier in the night and reshot photos of yesterday's Moth Doe number 2 which are a little clearer.

Little moth, just under 10mm, head to end of wing.

Moth No.2 from yesterday - side view, approx 15mm in length.

Moth No. 2 from yesterday shot in better light

Brown brigade

Now, let's be clear, a spot of midweek mothing does not constitute an addiction... yet.
A new site -  on our upstairs balcony, safely away from the dog. As soon as the sun went down the first few visitors arrived, along with a very fat Cuban tree frog who presumably got fatter as the night went on. Lots of brown moths today:

Cramer's Sphinx Moth - Erinnyis crameri

Spodoptera ornitholgalli - Yellow-striped Armyworm Moth

Pearls before swine

Last weekend I was in New York tipping cabs rather than trapping moths so I was (rather nerdily) looking forward to putting the trap out again last night after the break. Within seconds of turning on the lights I managed to pot a pearlescent beauty! Despite my high hopes for a good haul of moths I woke at 5.45am to the sound of pouring rain and ended up racing out to switch off the trap rather earlier than hoped. Luckily the "Ratface USA" held up well in the weather - not surprisingly, the soggy egg boxes contained nothing more than one poor dull little moth (see below) and a dopey black beetle.

Pretty shiny pinks and creams - I love this mystery moth!

Showing its beautiful pearlescent wings in the sunshine

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess?
Perhaps this one has a good sense of humour.

Another creature of the night

Unfortunately for this malevolent looking thing, my love of creatures great and small does not extend to scorpions. This one was found creeping down behind my drainpipe outside and was promptly dispatched with a spatula (now broken). I'm a bit sorry since he was probably just trying to rid the area of cockroaches but he did have a nasty looking stinger (pre-spatula) and I firmly believe in prevention rather than cure when it comes to scorpion infestations. Also, he might have eaten my moths!

Brown Bark Scorpion, known locally as Common Scorpion
Centruroides gracilis

First submission

Already word is spreading and moth appreciation is beginning to grow on the Island - here's a submission from Sandra Gowrie who found this beauty on the wall outside of her house:

Rustic Sphinx Moth - Manduca Rustica

Flying solo

Our first mothing session was a steep learning curve. Without my brother here to set up the trap and check it in the morning I learned that it is pretty hard to watch a four year-old and a two year-old, whilst dismantling the trap, photographing the creatures inside and making sure no fingers/antennae/legs/children are lost in the process. I also learned that my camera's macro setting isn't quite up to the job so I'll have to experiment with other cameras or get myself a new lens if this is to be a serious pursuit. Anyway, I don't imagine we'll be exciting the mothing world too much with what we trapped this week:

Lovely, small rusty orange moth

Tiny micro that has seen better days

Not a moth but heaps of these St. Andrew's Cotton

Stainers find their way into the trap too.

I am not a pro...

... as will become clear from these posts. Despite coming from one of the great mothing families of Bedfordshire, England, I have been immune to the wiles of the wainscots and the pull of the pugs until a recent visitor brought us a beautiful portable trap and infected my four-year-old son with a thirst for mothing. Being a good mother (and this time I mean 'female parent') I have promised my children that they will be allowed to moth on weekends. Being a good daughter and sister (and slightly competitive) I have promised my family that I will blog our findings. What makes our trap interesting is its location on Grand Cayman in the Caribbean - it is possible that we will be trapping previously unrecorded species - unfortunately we have no guide book to help us so we will be mothing in the dark, so to speak.

Lets kick off with some pictures of moths I (and/or my father, Trent) have snapped over the past few years in Cayman. From this point onwards any identifications or info will be gratefully received!

Streaked Sphinx Moth, Protambulyx strigilis

Ornate Moth, Utetheisa ornatrix

Spotted Oleander Moth, Empyreuma affinis