There’s a wet tiger in the garden

Callimorpha dominula

I’ve been trying to organise a walk with a couple of my colleagues from work, but we’ve had to cancel twice now because of the incessant rain. We’re not bothered about getting a bit wet, it’s just that I’m taking them to two of Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s nature reserves where I do a bit of surveying and hope to show them a few of our rarer butterflies and some day-flying moths. Today in between the downpours I found a couple of half-drowned Scarlet Tiger moths Callimorpha dominula in my garden, as you can probably see they were pretty sodden. I put this one on this leaf in the hope that it might dry out a bit. From what I’ve heard the weather has not been kind to butterflies or moths this year.

Yesterday I found a Garden Tiger Arctia caja, and earlier this morning a Cream-spot Tiger Arctia villica in a similar sorry state, both appeared to have been momentarily beaten to the ground by the rain. Although worrying they had managed to recover enough to fly away before I had time to get my camera. Mind you it may just have been the added shock of seeing me.