Tiny lives

While checking things out at the back end of the garden a few weeks ago, I spotted a number of these little moths — one of the so-called "micro moth" species — hanging out on some of the flowers. They're Cocksfoot Moths, Glyphipterix simpliciella, so named because the tiny caterpillars spend most of their time feeding on the seeds of Cock's-foot (a rank grass) and later pupate in its stem. Given that we have a few scattered clumps of that grass in our pocket meadow, that may be where the moths have come from. These are very small moths, measuring only 3-4 mm in length (about 1/10th of an inch) with a wingspan of maybe double that. Though they're often found in large groups on flowers (up to 20 at a time, according to several references I've read), they're so minute that they're easy to overlook. They're common over much of Britain and Ireland (and the western Palearctic), and are especially fond of buttercups. Fortunately, we have lots of those growing among our meadow grasses, so the moths, which fly from May to July, should find plenty to keep them happy here.