Sometimes you spot something you have never seen before on the plot and
before you can get the mobile out to take a photograph it’s gone.
Yesterday was a hot humid morning down on the plot. The sort
of day you do a lot of watering and take lots of breaks on the bench with
Lottie. She sleeps and you admire the plot and work out what to do next.
I have a big visit due this week. My neighbour who has
been in lockdown and isolation since March is coming to look over her plot
which I have been maintaining for her. So I must ensure its fully weeded,
everything is tidy and tied up and she doesn’t need to do anything except sit
down have a cup of tea from the farm café and have a long chat with me and
Lottie.
I was watering the back of her plot I got my mobile ready to
take some pictures of the many butterflies and bees taking over her marjoram
next to her shed. The usual crowd were there, some Comma butterflies, a couple of
Red Admirals and a solitary Peacock butterfly and at least half a dozen Bumble
Bees. It amazing how these pollinators all gravitate to this one bushy herb in flower and
drink out on its nectar.
Suddenly, my eye caught sight of a quite different coloured
butterfly. No not those White ones who eat the cabbage, but something hugely
different. He wasn’t interested in the marjoram but seemed very interested in
the Patti Pan squash in the corner.
One moment I saw black and white wings and the next orange. It was as if he was a cape crusader. I had to get a closer look.
I adjusted the zoom lens on my phone. Then tried to get it focused as I moved closer.
Just as i got him in my sights he flew off!
‘Missed another one?’ shouts Lottie with her whippet head
looking over the back of the bench.
I replied, ’He was camera shy.’
‘What with a coat like that.’
I said, ‘Yes he obviously didn’t want to be captured.’
Lottie gazed over the plot with those sight hound eyes. ‘If I
were you I would turn around right now and very carefully and look at the next plant
along.’
I turned just in time to see the butterfly fly under a large
leaf and disappear into the maze of twisted squash leaves and stems. I advanced
slowly camera ready and there he was sitting as bold as brass on the main stem.
Click and click again.
I wanted to be like those famous photographers and direct
him into a pose. ‘Lift your head and look straight at me. Great now open those
wings.’ Click, click, click.
But he didn’t move to my wishes.
I turned to thank Lottie to only find her head had
disappeared and no doubt she was back napping and dreaming of squirrels.
I turned back. He had gone.
I looked all around there was no sight of him. I looked at
the photograph I had taken and was pleased it was in focus and now had to
discover who he was and more about him.
It turns out he wasn’t a butterfly, but a moth and he is a Jersey
Tiger (Euplagia quadripunctariaiger).
Apparently, the adults can be found flying on warm days and
visiting flowers, such as Buddleia. They also fly at night and come to
light. They have a wingspan between 52 and 65 mm, so are fairly large Their
caterpillars can be seen from September to the following May, overwintering as
small larvae.
Importantly they are quite scarce nationally and are well
established along the south coast of Devon and Dorset, and inland to the edge
of Dartmoor. They have only recently been recorded in Kent and parts of London. So not common to these parts and the only cliffs around here are those glass and concrete ones at Canary Wharf.
Its strange seeing something for the first time and you wonder how long before you see them again. I also wonder what other little gems are living and visiting the allotments.
