Heavy metal

Here's a good reason for letting a few nettles grow in your garden: the Burnished Brass moth. It's one of a surprisingly large number of British types which have striking, metallic colouring. I spent quite a while trying to get the brightest reflection from its greeny-gold scales, not terribly successfully. I'll try again soon, because although it's a lovely moth, it's also quite common. The nettles feed its caterpillars so successfully that it manages manage two broods and comes to the trap all the way from June to September. I like its hair style too; one of a number of British moths to have a rather complex type of mini-Mohican.