Is this a Garden Tiger Moth?

[Sylvia Godfrey]

I was in my garden this evening when I spotted a moth, pictures attached, can anyone assit please? It would appear to be a Garden Tiger Moth but I can find no reference to orange markings on the forewings in any of my identification books.

I also found this lovely little (or rather large) skipper - I've never seen one in my garden before! Obviously my planting to attract wildlife is going to pay dividends.

Thanks,

Sylvia.

[Dave McCormick]

Thats a Jersey Tiger, see: http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?bf=2067 Garden Tiger is fatter looking and slightly different colours see:http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=2229

[Sylvia Godfrey]

Well I'm blessed - I'm glad I asked the question, thank you very much Dave, I'm most grateful

[Cotswold Cockney]

Well I'm blessed - I'm glad I asked the question, thank you very much Dave, I'm most grateful

The Garden Tiger is a larger more 'substantial' moth and less prone to fly in the daytime than those other fine Tigers, the Jersey and Scarlet which both are frequent day flyers and to the less experienced observer look very like Red Admirals and Painted Ladies in flight.

Have a look at this fine portrait of the Garden Tiger:

http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=2229

One of my all time favourite moths because when I was very young I found some larvae on some waste ground near my home, fed them on Dandelion Leaves and was rewarded by some beautiful moths a few weeks later. I was aged nine when I first bred them ... Early experiences like this sew the seeds of a lifetime's interest in these interesting and beautiful creatures.

Prior to that, when I was about three during the last days of WWII when the family lived in Walthamstow, East London (much more rural in those days) I found a completely Black Garden Tiger Moth resting on the Coal Store Shed Wall in our back garden ~ My parents told me it had obviously been made dirty by the coal dust and I believed them. It disappeared overnight and i suspect my parents got rid of the 'dirty' thing. I now know it to be a melanic black variety of this beautiful moth which sometimes occurs like that in the wild. About ten years later, on the Cotswold Hills only three or four miles from where I now live, in the company of my school friend Derrick Isles, we found a completely black variety of the Scarlet Tiger.... he was of the same opinion about the moth as my parents once were... it had got 'dirty' some how. However, I was able to advise him otherwise ~ one of the few occasions then that my knowledge of such things was superior to his .... we were very competitive and argumentative then as good friends often are.

Great Days gone forever...
...
...
..

[Dave McCormick]

Well I'm blessed - I'm glad I asked the question, thank you very much Dave, I'm most grateful

One of my all time favourite moths because when I was very young I found some larvae on some waste ground near my home, fed them on Dandelion Leaves and was rewarded by some beautiful moths a few weeks later. I was aged nine when I first bred them ... Early experiences like this sew the seeds of a lifetime's interest in these interesting and beautiful creatures.
..

One of my favourite moths too, because when I was 9, I was in local newspaper because someone at a local golf club had spotted one and wanted to know what it was and I knew straight away as I found one the day before. I was interviewed with my butterfly and moth book I had. I remember not liking that much then.