I know I had a lot around my butterfly bush until about a month ago. I often noticed something yellowish-orange when in flight but didn't got the chance yet to take a picture that make these underwings visible.
As they can be so variable in colour and patterns perhaps these could all be the same specie?
nr.1
nr.2
nr.3
nr.4
I actually have one in flight but the picture is probably not good enough..
Yes they are all Noctua pronuba, I had many variations this year too. One is a lovey chocolate red-brown! They have a pale stripe down the leading edge forewing, and the dark 'triangle' near wing bottom outer edge (with exception of my chocolate one!)
Your last one is a bit difficult to tell except for the orange, looks a bit like a Hummingbird Hawk moth, lol, I guess it is N. pronuba.
Thank you for the confirmation wallaby!
Your suggestion 'Hummingbird Hawk moth' for the last one has made me curious as it did make a humming sound like a bee!
Ah now I found it;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macroglossum_stellatarum
Now I'm sure that was the one! I did attract my attention by its sound, but it was impossible to make decent pictures as it was constantly hovering and humming and I also noticed it during the day around the Butterfly bush.
And I found another picture I kept of the same, but not very clear neither..
I put pics of that in Bugfiles from our hot year, 2006. Haven't seen it since but it was around briefly a year or two before that.
Lol, my instincts must have been right!
Here it is,
http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/2239/
Yes, your instincts were right!
And you managed to get a picture of it in rest.
I only had a brief visit of mine during 2 days. The pics I kept are from the 28th August this year.
It's a migrant to here and in good years fairly common, in 2006 it was around a lot but I only had the 5MP compact camera then! I got up on a step ladder to get the pics of it resting, lol, it was there for ages. I keep hoping they will return so I can get better pics!
Getting out the step ladder to take a picture I would call genuine dedication,lol! I'm a bit frustrated with my butterfly bush that planted itself at the ground floor but towers up to the upstairs terrace, problem is that only few branches hang over in a way that's safe to take pictures without risking to break my neck, or stumble over all the plant containers, the terrace has no fence. It's hard to miss all the opportunities as the bush is so popular, lol!
I think your first picture of it was quite good, at least much better than mine! Perhaps it's possible to take better pictures with a very high shutter speed but one need very good light conditions for that like I experienced.
I use a step ladder for dragonflies when they rest high on my wall too, lol! I did take a LOT of pics of the Hawk-moth, it seemed to take no notice of me and I had to get the camera quite close. Of course they never stay still, lol.
If light conditions are not good I would use Flash Compensation with the Nikon, as I do with may situations as we rarely have good light. It reduces the speed to 1/200 sec but that's sufficient with most things, it's the only way to get a reasonable pic. Nothing can beat good natural light though, the camera always focuses much better, it struggles in low light and needs to focus well even if using the flash.
When I take pics of moths on the window outside at night the light is low enough for it to send out it's infrared beam which fixes the focus, so lower light is then better than poor daylight!
This message was edited Oct 25, 2008 1:20 PM
That's an excellent idea about the Flash Compensation in poor light conditions.. I have that possibility with the Canon as well but usually forget about it at the moment I do need it.
