The fascinating life of moths

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The Annual General Meeting  of the U3A took place at the Community Centre, Conduit Hill on October 19. As usual it was full with a varied audience of people, who attend the 40 different, self regulated, groups throughout the year or the study days and occasional outings.

Keith Hillier-Palmer, the new chairman, dealt with the administrative issues of an AGM fairly quickly to get on with the meat of the afternoon, a talk about “Seeing the Light” (No, not a religious conversion, he added). Membership subscription remained the same, £14 and the present committee plus two new members were voted in ‘en bloc’.

Keith then continued with a surprisingly fascinating talk about moths. There are at least 2500 species in this country and many more in the wider world and only 60 species of butterflies. How does one tell the difference between them?  The butterfly has a bulbous ending on their antennae while the moth has a feathery end.

Moths have a brief life, days or weeks, and as an adult spend their short life reproducing.  Many female moths are studded with sense receptors that are used for smell, help find food (flower nectar) and are there for attracting the male which might be 8 kilometres away. Many follow the scent but, as Keith said: ” First come first served”. The female moth then finds the best foliage to give birth.

Most moths  use camouflage, a great defence in avoiding detection by a hungry predator (mainly the bat) as the moth flies around at night. They are also attracted by light which allows individuals like Keith to catch and study them. However, he made very clear that he does not harm them and lets them fly off again once he has coded them.

It might be worth knowing that isn’t the moth which eats through wool clothes but actually the larvae, though Keith thought it was not as prevalent recently. He was asked if the present climate crisis was affecting the moth, and the answer was that many species are moving further north as the south of England warms.

If above has tickled your interest in moths go to the animal corner website, which has some beautiful pictures.

Image Credits: Texas Eagle https://www.flickr.com/photos/texaseagle/7110981609/sizes/l CC BY-NC 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/.

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