Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.
The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.
Unlike some of our competitors we are not going to try and blackmail you into donating by saying that we won't continue if you don't. That would just be vulgar, but our lives, and those of the animals which we look after, would be a damn sight easier if we receive more donations to our fighting fund. Donate via Paypal today...
I am enjoying my on-going mini project, of trying to photograph the animals I can see through my office window. Photographing moths is particularly challenging. The upper moth is one of the carpet moths (a Devon carpet I think) but I have not been able to identify the lower one. Anyone out there know?
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I think I can identify these two moths, but am a rusty lepidopterist and welcome other opinions.
The upper insect is indeed a carpet moth. I would suggest a Silver-ground Carpet (Xanthorhoe montanata). Features include the whitish ground colour (more extensive than most of its relatives) and the broken or waisted area of the dark vertical bar across the wing (the 'median fascia'). The Silver-ground Carpet is common in May and June along hedgerows, lanes, woodland rides etc.
The lower moth is more difficult, but I think is a Willow Beauty (Peribatodes rhomboidaria) based on what I can see of the forewing pattern and the general shape (what a birder might call the 'jizz'). This common moth occurs in two or three broods between June and September; this photo will be of a first-brood example.
In the larval stage, both species are polyphagous (i.e. feed on many different species of plant). They are members of the large family Geometridae, which translates as 'earth measurers' - a reference to the distinctive motion of the caterpillars, known colloquially as 'loopers' (or, in North America, 'inchworms').
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