Saturday 4 July 2015

Scarlet Tiger

I wasn't birding today, but a visit to Hiller's Garden Centre near Alcester produced a couple of very beautiful moths, one of which I photographed. I knew immediately that they were tiger moths, and a quick look at a children's moth book in the gift shop left me certain they were Scarlet Tigers.

Scarlet Tiger
When I got home I checked my Lewington moth book and confirmed that I had the identification right. I had a quick look at their status and found them described as "local".

At this point I decided to look at my copy of Larger Moths of Warwickshire and found a photograph of one under the heading "vagrant moths". Eh? A quick look at the text and it turns out that there are only four Warwickshire records. The county status is described as "uncertain" and "suspected vagrant".

I need to tell someone.

PS Thank you to Kevin for his comments about Scarlet Tiger. He has seen them in his garden in Stratford, so perhaps they are not as rare as they were in 2006, when the Warwickshire moth book was published. Insects seem to be capable of incredibly fast status changes, e.g. Tree Bumblebee and Roesell's Bush Cricket. Global warming in action.
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4 comments:

  1. Unknown4 July 2015 at 11:46

    Becoming regular at this time of year. I've had two this week.One settled on side of flagstone and has now died but may have laid eggs in veg.vpatch

    ReplyDelete
  2. Richard Harbird4 July 2015 at 23:31

    Hi Kevin

    Not as rare as I had thought then. Which county/locality did you see yours in?

    Rich

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown5 July 2015 at 00:47

    I live in Stratford upon Avon.I've read that they like Comfrey but my pair were on tomato leaves.They seem to have spread from Turkey.
    It was a good week for visitors a female Sparrowhawk swooped down and took a sparrow not realising I was sitting under the parasol.It gave a sharp glare then zoomed away.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unknown5 July 2015 at 00:47

    I live in Stratford upon Avon.I've read that they like Comfrey but my pair were on tomato leaves.They seem to have spread from Turkey.
    It was a good week for visitors a female Sparrowhawk swooped down and took a sparrow not realising I was sitting under the parasol.It gave a sharp glare then zoomed away.

    ReplyDelete

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