Wild Life

Joyce Goldenlily

In the last couple of weeks I have disturbed a number of black "butterflies/moths when walking amongst long grass in my garden. Having done some checks on line I think I have identified it as the Chimney Sweeper moth. I have never seen these before, have no idea what the caterpillar looks like.

My garden is on the edge of approx. 100 acres of rough shrubland which it likes. It is supposed be common but I have certainly never seen one, let alone several before. They are most active in warm sunny weather so the heat wave is probably responsible for its appearance in my garden.

Buttercupdays

I see these in my garden, in my meadow area, where I have plenty of pignut, its larval food plant. I only know this because I looked it up when I read your post, so thank you!

I think I did look up the moths once before, but missed the link with pignut. Nice to know
Another interesting moth I see sometimesis its polar opposite, the white ermine. This apparently gets away with being white and very visible because it can eat poisonous plants like ragwort and make use of their poisonous compounds as protection - as long as it is not the first choice of a novice bird!

LauraRoslin

There's also a small variety known as the Chimneysweep's Boy.  

Which is also the title of a very good Ruth Rendall novel.