Twin-spotted Wainscot

At long last we've got our moth trap up and running again. Our last mercury vapour bulb gave up in 2019 - in spring 2020 we replaced it with a low-energy LED replacement. The only trouble was that it didn't attract any moths in our urban garden, where there are many competing sources of light nearby.

This spring we've acquired a bulb of a different design, which was tried out last night. Success! There were several species in the trap this morning including this Twin-spotted Quaker. The caterpillars feed on a wide range of trees and woody plants, including oak (Quercus), aspen (Populus tremulata), sallow (Salix), field maple (Acer campestre), sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa), ash (Fraxinus), honeysuckle (Lonicera) and hop (Humulus lupulus). All of those, apart from aspen, grow in our garden so it might even be a home-bred one.