Thursday 13 September 2007

An English Brown Moth



I am writing this post because I like reading Debi Cates 'A Photo a Day' who has some amazing photos of exotic Texas wildlife. Debi has had photos of caterpillars that have the markings of tigers, and bright and exotic moths with the marking of orchids and the other day, I kid you not, a moth that looked like the snow queen, with coat, gloves and ermine ruff.
I thought I would try some of my own, and took a pic of this moth on the landing. The pic is a little shady but moths need to camouflage and much of this island is indeed at times a little shady, hence its brown colour. These are the only sorts of moths round here, I haven't seen any others, but you sometimes get huge spiders, in fact we only had two this morning in the bath. The camouflage is very effective because as you can see when I took it outside and put it down you can't see it at all.
How could you describe this moth? To me it looks like someone wearing a brown mac and head scarf, maybe in the Utiliterian forties, maybe with gravy browning in lieu of tights, perhaps carrying in a brown paper bag, queuing for rationed food in the drizzle. We also have Cabbage White Butterflies, which are a similarly exotic species.

6 comments:

laurie said...

wearing brown, queuing for food in the drizzle... what you have there, beverley, is a russian moth!

lebanesa said...

Love it Bev! Nice one. I found some enormous dark brown to black caterpillars today - fantastic things, but I didn't have my camera - should look them up and find out what they are.
I know what you mean about Debi's pics. Really great. Have you seen her friend, Donna's wildlife pics? Incredible things they have there. Lucky - I suppose it's a big country with a lot of countryside, where we have a small country with a lot of houses.
Laurie, if they're queuing for meths or tins of goulash they're probably old Yugoslav moths, with no home to go to nowadays.

Unknown said...

In answer to your comment, I was up there studying at Hull Uni for the past 4 years, always lived in London but had family friends and family in Cottingham and Withernsea respectively, so ended up going to uni there! Lived at the lawns, then grafton street, then lambert street then exmouth street! All praise Peter the Butcher! :)

Bobbie said...

Hey, I have been that brown moth a few times myself. These moths are very interesting to me, as are all insects. Such variety, form and function. Amazing.

lebanesa said...

Bev - this is nothing to do with moths. I'm just beginning to collect sweet pea seeds. so if you want any let me know.
I'm going to alter the email address on my blog as it doesn't seem to be working. So if you want some, email me tomorrow and let me know where to send them and you can try and grow them. They do really well if you plant them now.

Debi said...

This must be one of the lowly, underfed subjects of that Snow Queen.

You crack me up, Beverley. I'm in good company with the "Eye for Detail" award. I adore your amazing humor you see in the world.