Wonder of the day
The Merveille du jour Griposia aprilina, ‘wonder of the day’, is out and about at the moment. This attractive, black and white patterned, emerald green moth, reckoned as one of the most beautiful to be found in the British isles, is aptly named as it is a little wonder to behold.
Out and about in autumn
Found flying in September and October this moth is attracted to light, although rarely in huge numbers as it is quite thinly spread across the British isles, it prefers areas of mature woodland and the adult, unlike some adult moths which don’t feed, will be attracted to overripe fruit and ivy flowers.
The larvae of the moth rely on mature Oak trees and hatch very late for moths, here one can be seen warming it’s wings after hatching, the adults then lay their eggs, which overwinter until the next spring, and the larvae feed inside the leaves and flowers of the oak over the next summer, when the whole cycle is repeated. This means woodlands with plenty of English and sessile oaks are needed to provide a suitable habitat for them, luckily in the Northwest a lot of old oaks still stand, so this moth is locally quite common.
Attracting attractive moths
If you want to try and spot a Merveille du jour, or any of our many other beautiful species of moth, you can lure them with a torch and a white sheet at night. This is one of my favourite ways of attracting them and one of the easiest too, but, in order to see some species, you might have to turn to other methods. These methods are called ‘baiting’ or ‘sugaring’, and usually use some form of sweet smelling concoction.
There are many different recipes which lepidopterists or moth aficionados (mothicionados?) use to attract moths and no particular recipe is better than others, as different species are attracted to different smells and at different times of the year. One popular mixture is made of apple sauce, brown sugar and wine, another used melted pear drops, many use beer. One of my favourite recipes uses beer and is as follows;
Ingredients;
1 overripe banana, the mushier the better
A glass of dark beer, Guinness works well
A splash of dark rum
And a spoon or two of black treacle
Method;
First mash up the banana, then mix in the other ingredients, use something like an old sandwich box for convenience.
Leave this somewhere to ferment.
In the evening, when its been sat for a while and gotten lovely and gooey, find an old paintbrush or a stiff piece of card and take the concoction out to the garden or a nearby wood.
Paint the mixture on a tree trunk or fence post about 4 or 5 feet from the ground and in patches about 6 inches across, be aware that it will stain the wood!
Over-ripe bananas are used in this recipe as they release an odor that contains a compound called ‘3-methyl-1-butylacetate’, also known as isopentylacetate, which insects find irresistible. Bananas are often placed in butterfly houses to attract them to places where visitors can see them and this also works in the garden, it’s quite a good trick to use if you want to be surrounded by them whilst sat out in the summer and a cheap way of impressing guests too!. This compound is also a main part of the pheromone that bees release when they’re angry to summon others to their aid.
This method of baiting, and the simpler method of using a sheet hung over a washing line with a torch pointed at it, work best when there is a very gentle breeze, especially if the breeze is heading downwind from your baiting station. So it’s worth having a look about in the daytime to find out if there’s any bushes or other hiding places that they might be lurking in and which you can tempt them out of. Nights when it’s above 5°C and a little bit humid are more productive too.
As the nights can start getting a bit cold at this time of year it’s best to wrap up and take a flask with you, but you can also do what we do and take a bottle of wine and a couple of chairs as well. Of course you need an identification guide of some sort with you to find out what your looking at, I like to bring an identification guide with me to use as well as my phone, maybe bring along a camera with a decent macro lense, although the cameras on modern phones are more than up to the job now.
If you do decide to spend an evening moth trapping you’ll find it’s a very pleasant way of unwinding and finding some peace and quiet, of practising ‘mindfulness‘. Each moth is unique and they can be strikingly beautiful to look at closely, so it’s a good way of appreciating the beauty of nature. If you are still and listen carefully you’ll also get to notice other nocturnal creatures, which will start to emerge as they get used to your presence, you might even see or hear an owl, a hedgehog, foxes, bats or even a Badger!
A B-H
Northwest Nature and History 