Steve Ormerod

Evolution is the mother of sauce.

And ketchup.

Mottled Umber A variable species, with some strongly-banded individuals, others plain brownish with darker speckling. The females are completely wingless. Overwinter as an egg.Flight SeasonFlies from October into D...

Mottled Umber: one of the v latest moths of the year. Famous for having flightless females that use pheromones to lure males like the one in your pic.

butterfly-conservation.org/moths/mottle...

Cygnosaurus

#ModernDinosaurs

Final-year projects already underway with our School of Biosciences: i) using a bioreactor to investigate how global change processes affect algal lipids ii) effects of misconnected sewers and micro pollutants on a small urban stream

From seabirds to sea turtles: the fatal toll of plastic revealed A new study pinpoints the deadly thresholds of plastic ingestion for marine life.

And this is just the start as #plastic loadings into the world’s oceans will at least double in the next 1-3 decades www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Beaver wetlands create a buzz and a flutter for pollinators Our results show that beaver wetlands boost hoverfly richness/abundance, butterfly abundance and diversify foraging resources for pollinators while comparing favourably with human-created ponds for o...

#Beaver dams and pollinators. This Scottish study found greater hoverfly richness, hoverfly abundance and butterfly abundance in beaver wetlands than artificial ponds, but bees and moths were no different. Hoverflies were the major flower visitor in beaver wetlands doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Me too :)

I think they'll be around for a while - possible all winter? They're mostly at the northern end. There's a fairly vocal Teal lek also on some days.

V accommodating Little Egret today on #RoathPark Lake - allowing this iPhone pic.

One of at least six on the Lake just now

November Moths: Epirrita sp./spp.

‘Epirrita’ refers to the wavy markings resembling flow patterns on the surface of a river - according to Jacob Hübner who first named this moth (and many others).

I’ve posted a link to the paper on LinkedIn.

And I agree.

Here’s the on from @oceancare.bsky.social: www.oceancare.org/en/stories_a...

Appalling.

Oak Hook-tip the only moth in the trap last night.

The best year of the last 13 for this species: more caught than all other years combined

Natural - and probably climate-mediated - range expansion. Several other Eurasian herons also involved (Great White Egret, Cattle Egret and others to follow?)

Just checked BTO numbers - and the UK has had a 2725% increase since 1995

Clearly should be a No-regret, but there are other options...

Currently ~6 Little Egrets around Cardiff’s #RoathPark Lake - looking incongruously urban

Angle Shades from last night’s trap

Phlogophora meticulosa

Phlogophora: light bearing, and a throwback to when this moth and Small Angle Shades (with bright yellow spots) were in the same genus

meticulosa: fearful, timorous. From the posture or quivering pre-flight wings?

#teammoth #mothsmatter

Poplar Hawk-moth resting on a branch against a black background

Moths need darkness to thrive 🖤

But globally, light pollution is increasing by 10% a year, and these vital nocturnal pollinators need our help.

Find out how you can provide a haven for moths where you live by creating Moon Meadows 👉 butterfly-conservation.org/moon-meadows...

📷: Marian Coburn

Tool reveals how your dinner affects risk of 30,875 species land-dwelling animals going extinct University of Cambridge researchers have developed a new way to measure the impact of our food production on other species' survival around the world.

Tool reveals how your dinner affects risk of 30,875 species land-dwelling animals going extinct

"If everyone in the UK switched to a vegetarian diet overnight, we could halve our biodiversity impact."

phys.org/news/2025-10...

Would be interesting to see data from other locations to see if these are ‘eruptions’. And also how things fluctuate in future years.

Box Tree Moths first turned up here in Cyncoed (Cardiff) in 2021 but numbers in the garden trap have dropped since peaking in 2023. Caught here from June to late October - peaking in early September - with a hint of two generations?

Cydalima perspectalis
#MothsMatter
#TeamMoth

Green-brindled Crescent in two colour morphs: typical on the left, melanic (ab. capucina) on the right.

#MothsMatter
#TeamMoth

🤞

I even brought some of the 6th floor dust…

After 25 years an office move…

From old to new:

This was my first of the year: never more than a handful turn up.

Green-brindled Crescent - so fresh I’m guessing it’s probably from on of our garden Hawthorns

Allophyes oxyacanthae

Allophyes: changing in character (there are two colour morphs)

oxyacanthae: from Hawthorn or ‘sharp thorn’

#mothsmatter
#teammoth

Award-winning Wrexham Spaniel sniffing out wildlife crime Henry, a 10-year-old Springer Spaniel, was a

Top Dog!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...