SILVER-Y MOTH

The Silver-Y moth (not silvery) is our commonest migrant moth.  

It comes here in large numbers every year.

The caterpillar foodplant can be bedstraws, nettles, clovers, runner beans or cabbages.

The name comes from the Y mark on the wings, so it's one of the easiest moths to identify if you can persuade it to sit still.

I saved this one from battering itself on the window by trapping it in a glass but unfortunately the glass was a bit grimy.  Anyway this photo was to try and show its humpy outline at rest.

The moth was a bit restless but it would be calmed if I put my hand over the glass to shade it.  But of course by the time I had my camera-phone ready again it was flitting about.

When I released it in the garden it soon sought out some cover and hid under some dandelion leaves.

It has a really nice Latin name:  Autographa gamma, the gamma autograph.

DON'T FORGET THE BIG BUTTERFLY COUNT !