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