Furry gent

Have you met the Feathered Thorns? This sounds like a line from Agatha Christie or one of those society novels of the 1930s. You know, old Colonel Feathered-Thorn of Cheltenham and his rather delightful wife?

The moths of the same name contribute to such fantasies. Look at the furry, bristly male in the top two pictures. All he needs is a monocle. Those antennae would have the same effect as an imperial moustache and sidewhiskers on morale at the Khyber Pass.  He uses them to good effect to track down Miss Feathered-Thorn and turn her into Mrs. She is a fine moth too, but plainer and with very ordinary antennae, as in the three photographs immediately above.

And here they are together, a fine married couple and actually one of the commonest of current visitors to the trap. They are running second only to the Autumnal/November moths whose great variety is shown in the pictures below. I wonder if the pale one is a Pale November Moth. I must try it on my friends at Upper Thames Moths to see if they can tell from a photo.