I have noted more Tiger Moths in my South London area this year (2009) than at any other time over the years I have ‘amateurishly’ observed butterflies and moths. Beautiful as they are they seem rather a stupid moth since when disturbed ‘they blunder about not knowing which, what, where they should be doing or going’.
Having alarmed ‘a Tiger’ outside my Peckham back garden I also distubed at the same time an even more exotic flutterer which on seeing, my heart missed a beat. I could almost believe I was witnessing A Camberwell Beauty. Camberwell is just up the road from Peckham. Familiar with Admirals and Peacocks in flight it wasn’t them. It was Large and could have been a Large Tortoishell. Like the Jersey Tiger Moth it blundered about between the rear space between my house and the neighbour’s. I muttered at it as I eyed it going this-way-and-that craning and bobbing my head as if I was at a tennis match “Stay!” “Settle!” “Let me have a closer look at you!” But, it sailed over the roofs and was gone. I recall clearly the maroon underwings and clear white dots of speckling along wing edges. What On Earth Was It? Another type of Tiger?
The other evening I witnessed my neighbour, but two, out my upstairs window knock a tree in his garden covered in dry ivy with a rake. Out jumped a bevy of Tigers which miandered around and then settled back again.
