Every single thing I tweet these days gets a like from a scam account on twitter. Commonly these accounts purport to be young women seeking a partner. There is usually an attractive photo of… Read More

As a child, I remember my mother telling me something she learned when she was an eye nurse – dogs are colourblind. Now, if I remember rightly, she didn’t mean they could only se… Read More

I saw my first Merveille du Jour (Griposia aprilina) in the autumn of 2019, a year after I started mothing. A couple have turned up to my 20W actinic Skinner trap in October 2023. I photogra… Read More

Is this a Northern Deep-brown Dart, Aporophyla lueneburgensis or just a Deep-brown Dart, A. lutulenta? Nobody seems to be able to decide definitively, there’s a taxonomic debate raging… Read More

This beautiful, shimmering bronze creature with the creamy markings on its wings is Dewick’s Plusia, Macdunnoughia confusa. It’s one of the many “Noctuid” moths somet… Read More

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I rarely enter competitions these days, although I’ve got a few science writing awards under my belt going back more years than I care to admit. However, back in the summer, a local wi… Read More

This is one of those moths that could be any of half a dozen different species. You cannot know for sure unless you’ve raised it from larvae, done DNA testing, or what the lepidopteris… Read More

We took a quick and easy flight to Menorca with an offsetting airline, first visit there since 2000 and first flight since our trip to Greece in the autumn before COVID… Anyway… Read More

TL:DR – I have dozens of songs and instrumentals for you to download or stream through my BandCamp page right now. Although, I’m probably best known as a professional science wri… Read More

The Apple Leaf Miner Moth, Lyonetia clerkella, is a tiny insect with a wingspan of just 7-9 millimetres. It is widely distributed across the UK. Its larvae burrow under the surface of the le… Read More

Yesterday, I was tidying up egg cartons and the moth trap when I noticed a Least Carpet roosting on a window frame, I stepped up with a pot to catch it so I could release it into the back ga… Read More

While we were standing on the ditch-bridge beyond the old, stilted Rothschild’s Bungalow at Woodwalton Fen National Nature Reserve trying to catch a glimpse of the Purple Emperors whee… Read More

We took our first camping trip to Stiffkey for several years. Torrential rain and wind during the first night, but better, brighter, hotter days to follow, mostly. Mrs Sciencebase spotted Sp… Read More

As I approach my fifth anniversary as a mother, my tally shows that I have recorded and photographed almost 500 species. The most recent was new to my garden – The Leopard Moth, Zeuzer… Read More

I acquired yet another moth trap to go alongside my old second-hand, home-made Robinson with the 40W actinic UV fluorescent U-tube, the portable 20W UV fluorescent Heath, the LepiLED, and, o… Read More

TL:DR – Photos taken in very light with an old camera are never going to come up to snuff unless you use a denoise app like DxO’s PureRaw 3. We were up early from our camp bed ne… Read More

The weather picked up mid-morning, so I pinged my photo buddy Andy to see if he fancied taxiing me to Devil’s Dyke to seek out the cluster of Dingy Skipper butterflies not by others at… Read More

In his writings on ethics, Aristotle had it that: One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy. Us… Read More

It is Green Hairstreak season. I’d heard that this tiny, shimmering green butterfly had been spotted on Devil’s Dyke in Cambridgeshire in mid-April, so I headed out on foot to a… Read More

The European Peacock (Aglais io) has four “eyes” on its wings just like the Emperor (Saturnia pavonia), it’s a nice example pareidolia and of convergent evolution. Peacock… Read More

Lots of animals and even plants have evolved to have a visual resemblance to other organisms. The flowers of the Bee Orchid as the name would suggest look like female bees and as such attrac… Read More