Cooling Marshes, Kent, 7th December 2014

Thursday 16 August 2012

Tigers in Brockley!

Grrr...



Jersey Tiger Moth (Euplagia quadripunctaria)


Sorry, didn't mean to alarm anyone with the title of the post...there are no REAL tigers in Brockley, well not that I've ever come across. But I have spotted a good number of these little beauties recently - Jersey Tiger Moths! I found these in the allotment garden by the station last week, where they were flitting conspicuously among the flowers and weeds. I saw another one bolting across the road nearby, a hurried mess of black and creamy white wings, a reddish spark from its underwing.

Given their fairly large size and the fact that they fly by day (unlike most moths) they can easily be confused for butterflies at first, a Red Admiral maybe, but it's soon easy to tell them apart. They're generally not that fussy about where they land, or put off by a bit of attention; they will expose their bright red underwing and take flight if suitably disturbed though.

They're certainly becoming more common now and summers in South London can be marked by the first appearance of this species. When I first saw one of these land on my window sill in SE London two years ago, I was slightly confused when my little moth ID book suggested it had a range across much of Europe but only in the farthest reaches of South West England. Naturally I thought I'd scored a mothing mega (!) but that summer it was revealed that the moths were being seen in London for the first time (although 2005-6 looks more likely) and in unprecedented numbers. Warmer and therefore more hospitable conditions are no doubt the reason for this gradual shift northwards from their 'natural' range of the Channel Islands and Europe. We may not be so aware of subtle climatic changes like this but here's proof that things are happening. Jersey Tiger moths even made it to Kent last year.

Now's a good time to see these stunning moths, love it or hate it, Buddleia is a good bet. Maybe there's a tiger at the bottom of your garden?!




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