Friday, 4 October 2013

The Vestal

My second ever garden record of The Vestal last night. This small moth with a wing span of just over 2 cm breeds no closer than Southern Europe but, aided by the warm southerly air stream, has travelled over 1000 miles to Darley Dale. 
The colour of the adult has been linked to the temperature experienced by the pupae. High temperatures produce a lemon yellow ground colour with a vivid pink cross band. At lower temperatures the ground colour is a duller straw yellow and the cross band is brown or black which indicates that this individual is probably from the northern part of the breeding range.
All I need now is Crimson Speckled!
The Vestal

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...