Butterflies and moths

It has been a really lovely sunny day. I meant to go out in the afternoon but I had too much pear cider (Jacksons) at lunchtime and it knocked me out for a couple of hours. So I went out into the garden and tried to take pictures of butterflies and moths.



Above: I had to follow this Peacock butterfly around for quite a time until it settled long enough for me to take a picture. They hibernate through the winter. The caterpillars feed on nettle leaves (which is probably why they are in the garden so often).



Above: Common Blue butterfly on the leylandi hedge (the hedge was planted by my brother-in-law and we are stuck with it). Or possibly this is an Adonis Blue (it seems to have the black marks in the white fringes). The Common Blue is widespread throughout the British Isles.



Above: this is a small Victorian table where the top has been decorated with real blutterflies, preserved under a sheet of glass. The colours were still vivid. It seems incredibly cruel to use such beautiful insects in such a way.



Above: in museums (especially small local ones) you can also come across cabinets filled with butterflies all meticulously noted and identified. The Victorians had a mania for measuring the natural world. If you can measure something you can control it.



Above: recently I read The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams. Although it was fiction it had a lot of scientific information about moths, and the obsessional nature of those who study them. I had never really thought before about how a pupa emerges as a moth.