Summer is for Hawkmoths

Summer is upon us, despite the cold and heavy rain at the time of writing (June 2026) and as the weather warmed, some spectacular hawkmoths started to appear. Hawkmoths are large, fast flying, and often brightly coloured moths. My Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland (Waring and Townsend 2017) explains that we have nine UK resident species, and nine immigrants plus a few that occasionally arrive from time to time.

At the time of writing, we have already had several hawkmoth species to our Stroud garden moth light. First to arrive on 24 May was a spectacular Lime Hawkmoth (image 1) (with a distinctive scalloped-edged forewing and subtly coloured in pinkish and green with a dark green band across its forewings) and, at the same time, the strange Poplar Hawkmoth with hindwings that project beyond the forewing. A few days later, on 1^st June, a yellow and pink coloured Small Elephant Hawkmoth (Image 2) arrived.