Join Polly Pullar for the second part of her look at the wonder of moths.
MOTHS are not without associated myths. Once viewed as creeping creatures of the crepuscular hours, some people believed they were the spirits of the dead. Others thought they were the spirits of troubled souls.
Moths attracted to candlelight in a room where a body lay awaiting burial – and most nocturnal moths are drawn to light – were viewed as the person’s spirit leaving the human remains.
Moths were considered the companions of witches or even seen as witches in disguise. Largely moths were not seen from a positive perspective.
Conversely, due to their fascinating life cycle, they also signified rebirth. This is because they spend a long time as a motionless pupal larva that seems dead and lifeless, but from which miraculously a glorious, winged insect emerges with no warning. Hence their association with reincarnation.
Moths go through a magical metamorphosis.
First, they lay eggs that will hatch into caterpillars. Some moth caterpillars are equally beautiful and sometimes even more so than the adult moths.
Each species depends on certain food plants for its survival, and some caterpillars will only consume one type of plant.
Once the caterpillar has reached full size, which is not the same length of time for all species, it changes and becomes a pupa.
Pupation can occur among leaves, on tree trunks, or while hidden in the soil or deep leaf litter. The next phase is the emergence of the adult moth from the pupal case – the time this takes is different for each type of moth.
Some moths hibernate, and a few migrate. And one species of moth – the belted beauty female – has no wings, so once she emerges from the pupa, she will stay close.
Male belted beauty moths are attracted to the pheromones she emits and will come to find her, and so the cycle begins again. Nature is perfection, and the life cycles of certain types of moths synchronise with the flowering period of the specific food plants they require.
Some of the most commonly seen day-fliers are extremely beautiful, particularly the burnet and cinnabar moths. They use nature’s warning colours – red and black – to ward off predators and inform them that they are unpalatable and best left alone.
These brilliant, metallic jewels, often found in unimproved summer meadows or coastal grasslands, also absorb poisons from some of the plants they consume, making them poisonous. It is as if they are fitted with unique chemical warfare.
The exceedingly rare day-flying slender Scotc
