The Elephant Hawk Moth

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 A pretty common moth but nevertheless a spectacular one. I was excited to find one in last night's moth trap. The food plant tends to be rose bay willow herb, but they are sometimes found in daylight sipping at honeysuckle flowers. Possibly my favourite moth.

The moth is common throughout Britain and most people could probably get one in their garden - if only they knew!  The moths get their name from the impressive caterpillars that are supposed to resemble and elephant's trunk. Elephant hawks moth have very well developed vision and are noted for their ability to hover. I am showing a photo of th caterpillar from my archives from 2016 when one walked across the path in front of us.



Diary
Overnight cameras showed three clips of foxes: one of them might have been a young one but it wasn't a clear view. The moth trap produced three poplar hawk moths, a pale ermine, carpet moths, 6 burying beetles and a cockchafer beetle as well as half a dozen small brown jobs that I don't have time to go through. There is due to be a partial eclipse of the sun visible from here today but its cloudy - which seems to be the rule when  there are astronomical events.
We take our red squirrels for granted as we see several a day but I thought I would remind myself that they are still about with this recent photograph.




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