Panel: Richard Collins & Éanna Ní Lamhna

Reporter: Michele Browne

In addition to listening to us on RTÉ Radio One at 22:00 every Monday night, don't forget that you can also listen back to each of our programmes any time you like at www.rte.ie/mooney. There, you will find an extensive archive of past broadcasts, conveniently split into different topics and segments.

This week’s programme features one of Ireland’s most widespread but underappreciated insects, the Angle Shades moth. This species is often seen during the daytime, as indeed are several other Irish moth species, some of which are much more colourful than you may expect.

With this in mind, and to help you to learn more about this fascinating group of insects, our suggestion from the Mooney Goes Wild archives this week is a report from our roving reporter Terry Flanagan about day-flying moths, first broadcast in July 2013.

To listen to this segment from the Mooney Goes Wild archives, visit https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/20221411/

The Angle Shades moth

As we discover on tonight's programme, this highly camouflaged, almost army fatigue-patterned moth is an Angle Shades, a common and widespread species across Ireland that can be seen most readily during the months of autumn. Despite this, it is very frequently overlooked, due mainly to its resemblance at rest to a dry withered autumn leaf. Unlike the vast majority of Irish moth species, the Angle Shades is often seen during the day, so be sure to keep an eye out for them when you are out and about over the coming weeks.

For more information about the Angle Shades moth, visit https://www.irishmoths.net/pages-moth/m-2306.html

To listen back to our fascinating discussion about moths with Prof. Marc Holderied from last week’s programme, visit https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22433765/

Where have all the butterflies gone?

There has been a lot of concern this year over the fate of a group of insects that is closely related to the moths, namely their fellow lepidopterans the butterflies. Many listeners have been in touch with us here at Mooney Goes Wild to say that they have seen far fewer of these highly distinctive insects visiting their gardens or flitting between the flowers on their countryside walks. 2024 appears to be a very poor year for Ireland's butterflies, without doubt.

This prompts Éanna to launch into a rendition of the Pete Seeger-penned classic "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?". After all, the fates of our butterflies and our flowers are inextricably linked; could a lack of nectar-rich flowers be the cause of butterfly declines?

After that musical interlude, we are joined by butterfly expert Jesmond Harding, author of The Irish Butterfly Book: A Complete Guide to the Butterflies of Ireland, who sheds some light on the problem for us. According to Jesmond, the main culprit this year has been the extremely wet weather we experienced, particularly during the spring and summer months. This had a drastic effect on the survival rates of caterpillars, and also made it difficult for the short-lived adults actually to take to the wing in order to find each other, mate and safely lay their eggs.

For more information from Jesmond Harding about the crash in butterfly numbers this year, visit https://butterflyconservation.ie/wp/2024/09/03/butterfly-numbers-crash/

Bee beds on Valentia Island

Gorgeous Valentia Island in Co. Kerry has lots to offer visitors, and now it has yet another fantastic attraction that is sure to generate quite a buzz! Beekeepers Paul O’Neill and Anton Tovarnitskyi of Valentia Bee Beds contacted the programme to let us know more about their exciting new business venture, which gives customers the opportunity to lie on special beds containing five genuine bee hives, each containing more than 50,000 bees. Paul and Anton believe that the vibrations, heat, sound and smell created by lying on the beds has a beneficial health effect on the body, and assure us that visitors are completely safe at all times and will not have direct contact with any bees.

It sounds like a story that is right up our street, so we dispatched Mooney Goes Wild Researcher Michele Browne to report on it for tonight’s programme.

For more information about Valentia Bee Beds, visit https://islandorganix.ie/beebeds/