While working on my much neglected garden I found this beautiful Silver Y moth resting on a discarded log. It doesn't take much to take me away from the garden chores, and so much to my wife's annoyance I hastily left everything and rushed to get my camera.
The Silver Y is a day flying imigrant moth from continental Europe. Coastal sites such as Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, are good places to find this species. There can be several generations a year and, as Spring arrivals often breed, and these are then supplemented by later-arriving immigrants, so that by Autumn the population can be large. They can frequently be seen by day, flying frantically as they visit flowers, as well as at dusk, and night. The Silver Y is named after the well-defined 'Y' mark on the forewing (see following pictures).
When at rest, the Silver Y holds its wings back along its body in a tent-like shape. The wings are patterned with a dark grey. silver and brown, with the characteristic silver y-shaped mark on the wing.
Couldn't resist taking a shot of the Silver Y peering over the edge of the log - looks quite cross.
Apart from rolling out his proboscis and occasionally moving to rest on different parts of the log, the Silver Y didn't seem to be at all bothered by my presence and made no effort to fly away. This gave me the opportunity to use the MPE and capture some close-up portraits.
