To see all 59 species of butterfly in the UK would require a good deal of time and effort, travelling hundreds of miles west, east and north of Dorset. Yet, in one moth trap, at Sculpture by the Lakes, in June there were 56 moth species recorded. To add to that, the scarlet tiger moths that fly in the day time were seen on the guided walk afterwards.
Visitors experiencing a moth trap for the first time are always surprised by the diverse ways in which moths attempt to look like everything other than a moth. The buff-tip is probably the most convincing mimic of a twig.
Other moths will try shades of green as camouflage to escape detection in the day time like the emerald moths. It is not difficult to work out which moth is called Spectacle with its curious tufts of hair looking like goggles.
But the hawk-moths dominate the trap at the moment with at least a dozen elephant hawk-moths. It is worth checking out the buddleia too, on our butterfly walk, for day-flying Hummingbird hawk-moths.
