Countdown to Halloween - 7 - Miscellaneous Scorpion

Although - If you sat on one it couldn't be 'miscellaneous' in any sense of the word!

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!