The weather is about to change so I took the opportunity for a final tour of the garden for late insects.

Rufous grasshoppers, Pyrausta despicata moths and small copper butterflies have all had a good year and have been seen for most of the past three moths. There were some individuals around today. The small copper was huge (relatively) so I assume it was a female. She was really fresh too - but she's left it really late to get her offspring to the required stage for overwintering.

I walked up to town to meet Christine after dark last night and saw three field cricket nymphs on the path (one squashed).

It's coming up to the end of the moth trapping time for this year. I put the trap out anyway and only got 3 moths - but one of them was a new species for the garden, a Lunar Underwing. This used to be one of the moths I saw really frequently back in the UK and I was always puzzled that I hadn't recorded them here.