Wing and a Prayer

Today's moth is just one of dozens of Black Rustics which are flitting about the garden at this time of year, but as you can see, it is one with a difference. Something - a bird or bat attack or collision with twigs or brambles - has removed large sections of wing scales.

The incident doesn't, however, appear to have damaged the actual wing 'fabric' which shows clearly through on the picture, foggily translucent like the paper we used to stick on to our balsa wood kit planes long ago. It also didn't affect the airworthiness of the moth which flew away after our photographic session, as powerfully as any of its fellows in better condition.

The episode reminded me of pictures of battered wartime 'planes whose ability to survive serious damage led to the writing of the famous song 'Comin' in on a Wing and a Prayer'. It's worth spending a moment reading the background to this here, on an excellent web-page from which my other photographs are taken, including the relevant squadron's subsequent emblem. below. Only shame is, the artist didn't use a moth.