September 2017 — the elephant hawk-moth

Elephant Hawk-Moth suggests a vast lumbering insect armed with tusk-like protrusions. In fact, the name comes from the caterpillar, which is large, grey and leathery ‘like an elephant reaching out its trunk for a bun’, says the Observer’s Book of Common Insects. I hadn’t seen one in our locality for 20 years, but walking along the path at the back of Strinesdale Treatment Works, I noticed something dark-coloured feeding on Rosebay Willow herb. Thinking it was probably a slug, I stepped down the bank to find that the creature certainly was a larva of the Elephant Hawk-Moth. Despite the drab appearance of the caterpillar, the moth, which flies at night to feed the honeysuckle, is the beautiful insect coloured pink and olive green.

Elephant Hawk-Moth

     This was a good time to be out. A few yards further on a kingfisher hurtled out of the bushes, crossing the duck pond known as the Little Sea. The bird climbed steeply to evade swallows crashing the surface of the water in their hunt for insects. The swallows need sustenance to prepare them for their long haul to Southern Africa.

     One of our best wild flowers is now in bloom around the Strinesdale site. Devilsbit Scabious has small purple flowers on wiry stems and has retained its odd name since the medieval period. The origin is unclear but Culpeper’s Herbal links the name to the unusually short root that anchors the plant. ‘This root was longer until the devil bit away the rest of it for spite, envying its usefulness to mankind. The decoration of the herb, with honey of roses put therein, is very effectual to help swellings of the throat by often gargling the mouth therewith’.

     The ancient medicinal plants were known as simples. The 1909 tome Beeton’s All About Gardening states that ‘the culture and curing of simples was formerly a part of a lady’s education.’ The group of simples is currently growing along Holgate Street. St John’s Wort, bright with starry yellow flowers ‘is much commended to help sciatica’. Wild Marjoram ‘helps the bitings of venomous beasts’ and by the RSPCA Centre the tall and handsome Mug wort ‘helpeth the crick in the neck’.

     At the same spot some self-sown Buddleia bushes, an expensive pest on railway lines, are attracting Red Admiral butterflies. Absolutely magnificent insects.

First published in September 2017