Julia Martin Photography
Scarlet Tiger (Callimorpha dominula)
Found this lovely moth on my driveway this week end. Not a usual visitor to my part of the country-Worcestershire.
It belongs to the tiger moth family, Arctiidae. Unusually for tiger moths, Scarlet Tiger moths have developed mouth parts (proboscis), allowing them to feed on nectar. How strange that some moths do not eat at all as adults, but live on the stored fat they built up when larvae – they live to breed and, once that job is done, they die. This isn’t that unusual, for some types of insect, though, as some crane fly adults have a similar life, and also don’t eat.
Scarlet Tiger (Callimorpha dominula)
Found this lovely moth on my driveway this week end. Not a usual visitor to my part of the country-Worcestershire.
It belongs to the tiger moth family, Arctiidae. Unusually for tiger moths, Scarlet Tiger moths have developed mouth parts (proboscis), allowing them to feed on nectar. How strange that some moths do not eat at all as adults, but live on the stored fat they built up when larvae – they live to breed and, once that job is done, they die. This isn’t that unusual, for some types of insect, though, as some crane fly adults have a similar life, and also don’t eat.