For those of us who measure the year's passing in moths rather than months, this is the happy season of the Scarlet Tiger. One of the showiest of all the UK's species, it also has the agreeable habit of flying by day. There are lots around; check out bright scraps of red whirling around your flower beds in eccentric fashion. Or keep an eye out, sadly, for the number which end up as roadkill or otherwise squashed.
Although they like flowers, Scarlet Tigers also enjoy perching on warm surfaces; the latest one to call here is a good example. At first I thought that this little blemish on my T-shirt on the washing line might be a stubborn food staiun. But no, it was the Scarlet Tiger seen close-up in the split photo at the top of this post.That close-up shows the wonderful greeny-black sheen like a petrol slick, created by the still more wonderful positioning of reflecting and refracting scales on the moth's wings. My daughter-in-law, mother of the famed granddaughter entomologist who runs her own light trap, meanwhile got this very good picture below through a window, showing the scarlet underwings which give the moth its name but which are normally hidden when at rest.
The light trap is meanwhile attracting plenty of very attractive visitors and here are some of them below. First of all a Light Arches on the left below, and the familiar and currently very common Dark Arches on the right.
All these moths have been flying under the recent 'Strawberry Moon' huge and very low in the sky - but never in my experience strawberry-coloured, though many of the pictures online have an obvious trace of that. The name comes from the coincidence of the atmospheric conditions which give this enlarged effect with the start of the wild strawberry season, which has indeed just happened around here. Our moon was definitely orange.