Glistening Gold

A lovely bright visitor came to the trap on the eve of Penny's birthday - this Gold Spot with its shining wings made up of light-reflecting and refracting scales. It is one of the best of UK moths to use in arguments with those who believe that all moths are small. brown and eat cardigans.

My beautiful thumb gives some scale in the picture above while the one below shows the colours in a slightly different but equally accurate light. There is another species called Lempke's Gold Spot which differs from this one so slightly that dissection of genitalia can be required to sort them out. Such surgery is not for me.

The Ruby Tiger below is another brightly-coloured moth although not an all-round star like the Gold Spot. You have to look closely to see the red knee-breeches shown here and the moth is very reluctant to show its pale ruby underwings except in flight.

Two stars in monochrome next, a Sallow Kitten and a Leopard moth followed by a dainty and unusually smokily-ribboned Small Scallop.

The season of Jersey Tigers has begun in the South of England, very striking, day-flying moths with their black and cream-striped top forewing and even more dramatic orange and red hindwing, usually visible only in flight - hence my rather exciting blurs. The second picture below shows the moth reflecting a very pink sunset at my grandchildren's home in Wiltshire. They are often understandably mistaken for butterflies but have a much crazier, wildly jinking flight.

Moths such as these may have helped to encourage the Royal Mail to produce its excellent new series of stamps based on moths. My late mother-in-law, who was always very interested in my moths until her death aged a week short of 101 just before Covid, wrote to the Post Office and Royal Mail asking for a set exactly like this one. Hooray that her letter has finally reached the top of the pile.

Two littlies to end with: a Common Carpet pretending to be a butterfly above, and a Double-striped Pug below with the eggbox scale to show exactly how small the moth is.