A hint of flint

The Lepidoptera, the scaly-winged insects we know as moths and butterflies, have become some of a citizen science preoccupation for me over the last year or so, hopefully at least a few of you noticed. I’ve talked about how many of these insects are perhaps dowdy and drab but there is such huge variety in their form, shape, patterns, and behaviour and so many are brighter and more colourful and intriguing than the moths we call butterflies in English. With more than 2500 species in the British Isles, what’s an amateur naturalist going to do, but study, photograph, and write about them? Yesterday one of my colleagues on the Facebook group “UK Moths Flying Tonight” posted a photo of a moth known as Buff Arches, Habrosyne pyritoides (Hufnagel, 1766). I was envious and hoping to see one today, and there here we are, there was one in the trap, hence my photos. The UK Moths site says of Buff Arches: The combination of smooth grey, white and russet-brown make this delicately-marked moth one of the prettiest, especially when observed at close range. Now, many Lepidoptera are patterned and colourful. Often the markings help camouflage the insect making it look like a leaf or a piece of twig. Buff Arches is particularly well marked and intricate and, at first, I couldn’t see through its disguise. My expert lep friend Leonard Cooper pointed out that it’s not trying to look like a leaf or a twig, it actually resembles a shard of flint. Buff Arches, i...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Moths Source Type: blogs