This PVC scorpion came-in in a mixed lot a
few weeks ago, and although not necessarily a Halloween toy - per se - we will
see later in the week that it belongs in the countdown.
The same charity shop gave up this old Hamlyn pocket handbook on insects, I
have the tree volume and a few others, there's even one on uniforms I seem to
recall, indeed I may have the insect one already but the library is in storage.
They are OK for their age but North
American-centric with a few lines edited in by the British publishers to cover
for Europe or the UK, which doesn't matter so much for the tree or cactus
volumes, but is a bit of a hamstring-injury for someone relying on the book to
ID UK insects!
Also, the artwork is a bit dated and
simplistic, but; having made in sound awful, I would emphasise it's still a
useful work, and with the Internet as a back-up, you can find the closest-match
and then do a Google image-search for the others using the taxonomic info
obtained and usually find 'yours' with little difficulty. Collin's 'Gem' and the
old Observer's guide books make-up
the triumvirate of small, useful, reference works.
Angle
Shades Moth
It helped me ID this, a couple of days
after I bought it! Found in the woodpile and saved from the axe; it was
mentioned a few days later in the paper as an autumn visitor - pushed-up by the
warm plume which preceded Hurricane Ophelia - to feed on ivy flowers.
We ought to have Halloween moths? A bag of
killer, vampire Mothma's!
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