First butterflies, now moths decline

[Still Waters]

The night-flying insects are just as important to the ecosystem as the colourful butterflies we see during the day.

But in the last 40 years two thirds of teh 1,000 British species have declined and three species - the orange upperwing, bordered gothic and Brighton wainscot - all went extinct in the last ten years.

Once common garden species such as the V-moth, garden tiger and spinach moths had seen numbers fall by more than 90 per cent.

http://www.telegraph...hs-decline.html

[Space Commander Travis]

Funny, just yesterday I was reading that last year was a bumper year for butterflies becuse there was more something or other than there has been for a long time.

It just shows what you can prove if there's something you want to prove, isn't it.

[Bonecrusher]

Could me and Kayla be partly to blame for the demise of the moths.

Well me,my sis and the dogs had a little break in Devon last September.

One night there was an almighty kerfuffle with a small,brown moth.

My sister wanted me to capture it in the cup of my hand and release it into the wild.

However Kayla decided to get in the act and swallowed it whole.

You must have seen her little,scrunched face like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

And the Angle Shades caterpillar I referred to a few weeks back got shoved in the gutter by accident.

I snapped off a picture of it with my I-Pad but it didn't even get a chance to live long after it's close-up.

But I'm sure there's more to their demise than Kayla's gluttony and my clumsiness.

[Still Waters]

Pictures of Britain's endangered moths -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/21274873