What have you been on?

I often compare my snoozing morning moths to students after a heavy night out, and here's an appropriate example. This vivid Brimstone moth, suitably representative of the current lovely sunny weather, had real trouble getting it together when I came to inspect the egg boxes. As you can see from the picture above, it managed in the end; and indeed, it finally fluttered off under its own steam rather than being decanted with the other sleepyheads deep inside a sheltering rhododendron bush. But its waking process involved a series of curious gymnastics; the half-bodyflip on the left above is specially impressive (look at how the legs on the left are clinging on...) Then it played dead for a while, betrayed only by its beady, very-much-alive eye, below.

The Brimstone is a common moth but very lovely in its colouring. You may well see it out and about by day, if you brush past a rowan or hawthorn. Follow it to its resting place, however, and you may be impressed at how subtly that bright colouring disappears and the slightly more pastel underwing looks just like a dying leaf. Brimstones are somewhat feckless in their breeding habits, like humans but unlike most, highly predictable UK moths, and consequently may be seen on the wing almost any time from Spring to late autumn.