Angle Shades. Phlogophora meticulosa Linnaeus,1758

"Carl von Linné was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology. Many of his writings were in Latin, and his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus."

"The Angle Shades is a medium-sized moth, generally seen on the wing from May to October as the result of two broods. The caterpillars are stout and green or brownish, with faint stripes on every segment. Larvae that hatch in autumn overwinter as caterpillars and pupate in the soil the following spring to produce the first generation of adults that year. The caterpillars feed on a wide range of plants including Dock and Stinging Nettles. This moth is quite common in parks and gardens, as well as woodland edges, scrub and hedgerows."

Doesn't mention its habit of pouncing from beneath the rim of toilet bowls and taking tight hold of an unsuspecting finger. Why? Where? I have no ideas..

How amazing. As enjoyable as my evening's viewing of 'My Idiot Brother' was, I took half an hour(+) out, midway through, to awkwardly fix macro tubes of different sizes, striving (& failing) to get enough light to get a good (unblurred) closeup shot - all one handed. I wanted to fill the screen with the compound eye - which - had I got in full 8Mp glory, would I think have been pretty wild. However I couldn't achieve a solid enough set-up, so had to make do with this stock lens, less-inspiring blip. Took a while to surf some moth sites and find the (above) identify & description - but isn't he/she cute!

Only when I zoomed into my shots, did I notice the 10 thorny spikes on the tops of the back legs (2x2 @ the rear & 1 @ on the mid pair) - which look decidedly 'dangerous'. Almost excuses the rambling, soothing, monologue I had with my 'loo friend' - the moth was not talkative, but was definitely 'listening' to the air vibrations I was emitting. I like to think that this contributed to an incident-free and equitable, human - Amphipyrinae communion.

I'm not sure whether ousting the insect into the planet-lit spring night, counts as a completely equitable resolution for the moth - but I'm trusting so. The coming season my rhododendrons may suffer - but with funky nocturnal visitors like these - it will be a small price to pay.