Wednesday 5 August 2015

May the force be with them



George Lucas drew from all manner of sources for his galaxy of creatures and machinery in the Sar Wars films. I bet that moths were among them.  I mean, doesn't this Pale Prominent look like something with not nice intentions towards the Ewoks and Luke Skywalker?  It's an extraordinarily constructed moth.


Its evolution may well come down to resembling a flake of wood, but it's the curious refinements which fascinate me. That black-topped mohican half way along its body, for instance. How has that helped the PP's fitness to survive?


Survive it does, a common moth if seldom seen by most of us, with thriving colonies as far north as Scotland's Great Glen. I am going to be in the latter in a few weeks' time but, alas, there won't be room in my suitcase for the moth trap.

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