December. There are moths to be found, but not much in the way of variety or surprises and the disappointment of finding nothing at all is quite high. Alice has very few records from December or January. In December she occasionally records Mottled Umber and Winter Moth and during January Pale-Brindled Beauty also appears. Much …
Author: kattyponder
Green Islands
What would it have been like to have been invited to tea with Alice Balfour? From the no doubt variously biased accounts I have read she sounds slightly formidable, at times single minded, but maybe sometimes a little lacking in confidence. Nieces speak fondly of her; sisters-in-law less so. She was surrounded by successful and …
Expert Opinion
Some of the problems with the small nondescript moths known as Pugs were described in an earlier post, 'Pug Enigmas'. I was struggling to identify the Pugs I was catching in my traps, as happens every summer, but I was also struggling to locate Alice's Pug specimens in the museum collections. They are not in …
Equinox
Equinox. Equal night. The date when day length and night length are equal? Actually not quite for us in the UK. It is the point in time when the position of the sun is directly above the celestial equator. This year the autumnal equinox was 0850h on 23rd September, when we in East Lothian were …
Change?
A lot can change in a hundred years, some good, some bad. During the 20th century a lot did. Perhaps technology in particular, with far-reaching ramifications. But what about the habitats and wildlife of Whittingehame? What's happened to them since Alice and her siblings were around? Comparing the list of moths that I have found …
The rise of the Footmen
For Alice Balfour, organising and managing Whittingehame Estate would have been a considerable and time-consuming undertaking. Although she owned a residence in Sussex which could have provided her an opportunity to set up home independently, perhaps a loyalty to her brother and sense of duty kept her at Whittingehame. She was fortunate to enjoy two …
Hawk-moth
Plump, colourful, beady eyed crowd-pleasers. Hawk-moths can’t fail to impress even the most reluctant observer of insects. In size and stature few UK insects come close. Eighteen different types of Hawk-moth have been seen in Britain, but most are restricted to the warmer south. In East Lothian eight species have been recorded in the last …
Pug enigmas
For the moth-enthusiast a Pug is not merely a breed of dog. It is a member of a group small moths, notorious for being small and grey, difficult to identify and bringing a sense of despair (and guilty relief when they 'escape' from the trap before having a chance to identify them) to the novice. …
The Chimney Sweeper
The Chimney Sweeper (Odezia atrata) is a small day-flying moth, well named for its dark sooty wings which are tipped with a thin border of white. Its caterpillars feed on flowers and seeds of Pignut (Conopodium majus), a plant of grassy meadows and verges. It is in these places that the moth can be seen, …
Rediscovering the moths of Whittingehame 