Monday 26 November 2012

Kitchen cabinet moth

It's too dark in the morning to trap these wintry days, and you may have read that poor old England is getting a thorough soaking too. But eagle-eyed Penny provides me with a moth even so, slumbering on one of our kitchen cupboards by the door hinge.

It is a Winter Moth unsurprisingly, a fascinating species whose 'blood' is akin to anti-freeze which allows it to thrive at this inhospitable time of the year. This one is a particularly impressive example of the survival of the fittest, having found its way into our cosy home.

Or is it? Given that it has the means to survive outside, perhaps it is risking the weakening of its powers, and those of its descendants, by taking this superficially cunning step. You can read a bit more about the antifreeze side of things in this post from January two years ago

2 comments:

staff said...

Martin, Hi. Enjoyed your R4 programme of several months ago. Can you tell me the title and author of the poem you used?

MartinWainwright said...

Hi and many apologies - I've not been checking the blog lately in these (largely) mothless months. I'll have a check back; can't remember offhand. Will try to message again before Christmas. All v best M