Marvel the mighty moth
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| • Lots of people will remember the Peppered
Moth from biology lessons. |
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| • My favorite the Drinker, so called for
its caterpillar’s habit of sucking dew from the grass. |
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| • The Purple Bar moth is very difficult
to see when resting. |
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| • The beautifully named True Lover’s
Knot is equally beautiful to look at. |
By James Chubb
East Devon Education Ranger
Summer holidays are becoming an increasingly feared time for
parents with mothers and fathers beating their brows to keep children
entertained. But it needn’t be exhausting. This should be a
time we all look forward to, as there’s so much to do and see.
James Chubb, East Devon District Council’s Education Ranger,
explains how to enjoy some of the most interesting, exciting and,
more importantly, free things our area has to offer, starting with
a group of animals that are very misunderstood
As a child, I remember the best thing about the summer holidays;
better than school being a distant speck on the horizon; better
than every day being warm and sunny; better than the jingle of the
ice cream van rolling up our road; was being allowed the stay up
late.
No longer did I need to be asleep while it was still light outside
– I could make the most of the whole day!
There’s plenty of amazing and wonderful creatures to keep a
young naturalist occupied during the day, but at night some really
special things come out to play.
In the UK, we have 42 species of butterfly either breeding here,
or visiting us from the continent. But, under cover of darkness,
an amazing 3,500 moth species call this country their own. And you’d
be wrong to think that butterflies have the lion’s share of
pretty patterns and flashy colours.
I know a lot of people are rather nervous around moths, some scared
even. I must admit I find this rather puzzling. Quite apart from
being beautiful, moths are very cute little insects, with tubby
furry bodies, soft wings and no biting mouthparts, just a long drinking
straw if anything. Some adult moths never feed and don’t have
a mouth at all.
What’s needed is a complete change of attitude. Rather than
looking at it as ‘a moth’ bumping round the light fitting
with the sole ambition of getting tangled in your hair, try viewing
it as a soon-to-be identified moth, stuck inside your confusing
light trap of a house, desperate to get out and potentially very
grateful for any assistance you can give it.
So, appoint your children as moth monitors. When a misplaced moth
finds its way into your home try to contain your nerves and make
a game of removing the moth safely using a jam jar, so you don’t
knock the precious scales off its wings.
Monitoring moths couldn’t be easier, and it makes a fun evening
activity for children of all ages. If you have an outdoor light,
try replacing the bulb with a high wattage one for the night, and
hang a white sheet below.
The moths will see the light and be drawn to it, landing on the
sheet for you to study. A butterfly net is a useful way of catching
the fast flyers without harming them, but slower moths can easily
be caught in a jar or clear plastic tube for identification purposes.
Some of the moths you will catch are truly remarkable. I remember
the first “swallowtail” moth I saw, a beautiful citrus
yellow with flowing tendrils from the underwings, such a lovely
thing that the vast majority of us would never know existed.
Then there are the really weird moths that look like bits of the
countryside!
The “buff tip” looks just like a piece of broken silver
birch twig. Not just a bit twiggy, but identical to a specific tree’s
broken branch, complete with a freshly snapped, raggedy edge.
There are lots of moths that look just like tree bark and lie on
trunks during the day perfectly camouflaged. I think my favourite
master of disguise is the “Chinese character”, which looks
like a little splodge of bird poo. Mainly white, it has bits of
yellow, brown and blue in it, just like a bird dropping.
Then there are the gentle giants – the hawk moths.
Some hawk moths are sleek and streamlined, like a jet fighter.
The “elephant hawk moth” is a massive, day-glow pink and
yellow monster.
They are so brightly coloured as to be almost gaudy, but when was
the last time you saw one? The “poplar hawk moth” is so
big when it lands it looks about the size of a child’s fist!
They have frilly, almost messy-looking wings that hang in a tangle
below their bodies.
Another category of interesting moths are those that people have
deemed to name unusually, and here’s why putting the names
in quotation marks to avoid confusion is so useful.
Moth trapping became a popular pastime in the Victorian period,
when naturalists classified and labelled thousands of the insects.
Many of the names have remained unchanged since that time and have
a charm and warmth that is as full of human history as natural history.
Some of the names are descriptive of how the moth looks: “the
flame” is a moth that looks like flying fire; the “white
colon” has a pair of bright punctuation marks on each wing;
and the “silver-Y” has a conspicuous silver coloured letter
Y – obviously!
The local heaths are full of strangely named moths, from the “true
lover’s knot”, to my favourite – “the drinker”!
Quite how the “pod lover” got its name is anyone’s
guess, but I can say with certainty it had nothing to do with music
downloading.
There’s plenty of chance to get confused, too. For example,
imagine the embarrassment of confusing a “bright-line brown-eye”
with the not dissimilar looking “brown-line bright-eye”,
never a dull moment on a moth trap!
Whether it’s their beautiful colours, strange names or the
fact that they go largely unnoticed and unloved in this country,
moths are a group of insects that always seem to interest people
the first time they are shown them close at hand. There is an added
bonus for parents too, as it’s customary, if not essential,
to accompany moth trapping with a glass of wine or two, just to
fend off the cold August nights of course! So set up your moth lamp,
settle back with a glass of red and watch the night’s catch
come flying in.
• James Chubb is East Devon District Council’s Education
Ranger.
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