David Bradley

@sciencebase.com

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Science Writer | Wildlife Photographer Mostly moth, butterfly, and bird photos

Bee hotel
Hornet Mimic Hoverfly, Volucella zonaria
Ethmia quadrillella, sideview, an ostensibly white moth with black spots
Juvenile Swallow closeup
Dusky-lemon Sallow, new for my Cambs garden on my 8th anniversary mothing
Hummingbird Hawk-moth
Sideview of the Ni Moth, Trichoplusia ni, showing the marking that vaguely resembles the 13th letter of the Greek alphabet
Small Mottled Willow moth, a migrant to the UK, appeared in large numbers in early June. Known as the Army Beetworm elsewhere and a notorious crop pest, although as with all moths its larvae and adults fit within the natural world as part of the broader ecosystem for their own sake, as pollinators, and as prey (larva and adult) for birds and other animals and the adults for bats
Eastern Bordered Straw moth with its wings partially open. This was one of the first specimens recorded ever in Cambridgeshire, end of May 2026
Nephopterix angustella NFM 2026
Common Straw, Cochylimorpha straminea
Female Wasp Spider
Poplar Hawk-moth, wings spread showing that coppery colour to the hindwings
Iron Prominent moth on a lichen-covered log
Vetch Moth, Aproaerema anthyllidella, sideview showing huge curved palps and long antennae. This moth was about 4mm long
Old photo Dog's Tooth moth from 2022
Old photo, but I had a female Oak Eggar and a Canary-shouldered Thorn to the lamp last night
2025 White-line Dart or is it actually Garden?
Pediasia contaminella, Rolled Grass-moth
Quick phone snap of the Pediasia contaminella, Rolled Grass-moth, NFM 2026. I do wonder if I've ignored this in the past and assumed it was just Garden Grass-moth, Chrysoteuchial culmella
Garden or White-line Dart???
White-line Dart?
Autographa gamma, the Silver Y sideview, from my archives, showing the "gamma" or "Y" shape of its names. Migrant species
Male Oak Eggar - what a unit!!!
Striped Hawk-moth from 2025, a rare migrant to the UK
2x Euzophera pinguis, Ash-bark Knot-horn
Gypsy Moth, now known in the US as the Spongy Moth Universally known to science as Lymantria dispar irrespective of political opinion
A battered Royal Mantle moth, new for my garden in 2026
Buff Arches overhead view
Tree-lichen Beauty
Marbled Beauty moth on lichen-covered log, from a distance it would be barely discernible
The Herald moth, so-called because of its flared mediaevel herald's skirt/tabard shape, colour, and markings
Three Leopard Moths snuggled together
Small Rivulet moth
The Herald, and orange moth with four tiny white spots on its forewings, some brown bands, and a crinkly, dried leaf edge to the wings
Buff-tip and birch
The Buff-tip moth has evolved to resemble a broken off piece of Silver Birch twig
The twiggy looking Buff-tip moth will cling to any stick to hide from predators. Here's one I snapped on an old pencil!
The Lackey, a beautiful, largely orange-brown moth with an intriguing shape and this male with large feathery antennae
Large Yellow Underwing moth
Plumed Fan-foot, sideview, showing its enormous palps. The plumed refers to the feathery nature of the male's antennae
Probably a Breckland Plume
Silver-washed Fritillary nectaring on an umbellifer
Gatekeeper butterfly, Pyronia tithonus. Apparently, some people call this the Hedge Brown, apparently...I've never heard anyone that calls it that
Short-eared Owl was heading right for me late afternoon as the sun was setting, saw me (and the big eye of the camera staring back) and banked away just 20m from me
Tyto alba, meaning White Owl, but we known it as the Barn Owl. From this angle you can see the origin of the scientific name as it's largely white on the underside and looks rather ghostly when it flies in the dark
Barn Owl in flight at dusk
Anania coronata, the Elder Pearl, some text refer to it as the Spotted Magpie, but this is not the modern, "accepted" vernacular name. The species part of its scientific name essentially means "crowned" while the genus "Anania" might be translated as without pain. So a whimsical name for the moth is "the one crowned without pain" but it might also mean harmless and so perhaps the benign, or gentle, king or something like that actually fits better
Catoptria pinella, Pearl Grass-moth. Archive photo
A black and white mottled caddisfly, Speckled Peter. Caddisflies are cousins of the moths sharing a common ancestor some 300My ago. The caddisflies are hairy or bristly winged, Trichoptera, whereas the moths and butterflies are scaly winged, Lepidoptera
Sideview of Early Thorn moth, March 2026. The second generation is purportedly August-September, smaller and paler, but the specimen I had (not this photo) is as big and strongly coloured as the one pictured. So, who knows what's going on. A very late 1st gen or a very early 2nd gen
Not the most flamboyant of moths, Achroia grisella, Lesser Wax Moth
Close up of The Shark moth showing the "quiff" that purportedly give it its shark shape
A couple of Black Arches moths, these are both males, archive photo
A New Zealand moth, present in the UK since ~2012, Trachypepla contritella, the Kiwi Enigma
Black and yellow striped Cinnabar larvae feeding on Ragwort
Giant Water-veneer moth
Marbled Clover moth, wings closed
Leopard Moth, overhead view wings open
Mystery micro moth, possibly P. scalella