Arctia Caja - whoever said moths were boring?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

 

William Blake didn't write The Tyger about arctia caja aka the garden tiger moth but it seems apt that across the Northern hemisphere small tigers are brightening the forests' nights.

 

When The Big Butterfly Count sent an email out about spotting tiger moths I just thought pffff we never get anything like that in our garden so imagine my surprise when my mum told me she saw a pretty moth in the greenhouse! I went to have a look, expecting some boring brown thing, and instead saw this big moth with a fuzzy orange head and giraffe pattern wings. I looked it up and it was indeed a tiger moth!

 

According to Wikipedia, that fount of all knowledge that is never ever wrong (heh heh heh), the garden tiger moth is protected in the UK with it's numbers declining 89% in the past 30 years! That's terrible! So the next time you see a big, hairy caterpillar don't squash it because you think it will give you a tropical infectious disease, move it to somewhere safe such as a big leafy bush and wait for this to happen:

 

This will be my last post for a week as I'll be going somewhere with no internet however don't be too bummed out as when I get back I'll have another guest post by another published author for you to enjoy!