\n This striking and unmistakable moth is cream and black above with red, orange, or sometimes yellow below.\n<\/p>\n
\n They are frequently seen in gardens, nectaring at flowers like Buddleia, or you can flush one from vegetation and a streak of flame dashes past in front of you.\n<\/p>\n
\n They are now a familiar sight, but it was not always the same.\n<\/p>\n
\n Jersey Tiger moths are found throughout central and southern Europe, but in the UK this moth used to be restricted to the Channel Islands, hence the name Jersey Tiger.\n<\/p>\n
\n Occasional rare migrants would reach the mainland, and it was first recorded on the Island from St\u00a0Helens in 1935.\n<\/p>\n
\n Then, small numbers colonised the south coast of Devon, and it gradually spread east.\n<\/p>\n
\n It was next seen on the Island in the early 1990s when a few appeared to have become established residents.\n<\/p>\n
\n Since then, numbers have continued to rise, in some years probably supplemented by further immigration from the continent. There have been many reports this year in July and early August.\n<\/p>\n
\n It is a real success story\u2026 at a time when most insect species are in decline, the Jersey Tiger has done the opposite with a 600 per cent\u00a0increase in its UK distribution in the 21st century, and it can now be seen right across the Island.\n<\/p>\n
\n The hairy caterpillars will feed on a range of herbaceous plants, particularly nettles, but also dandelions, plantains, ground-ivy, and brambles, so there is no shortage of food for them.\n<\/p>\n
\n They hibernate as small caterpillars over the winter and emerge in spring when they start feeding voraciously.\n<\/p>\n
\n The first adults appear in late June and can be seen right through until September, but numbers peak in mid-August.\n<\/p>\n
\n If you\u2019re lucky, you might even see the lutescens form with yellow underwings. Jersey Tiger is here to stay and is always a pleasure to see.\n<\/p>\n
\n Passing on sightings of moths and other wildlife can be a fun pastime, but is also vital in supporting nature conservation.\n<\/p>\n
\n I have taken on the role of county moth recorder, so if you do see a Jersey Tiger or any other interesting moth records, please let me\u00a0know.\n<\/p>\n
\n Submit\u00a0your sightings to iRecord. There is an app available at https:\/\/irecord.org.uk\/app or the website www.irecord.org.uk\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This striking and unmistakable moth is cream and black above with red, orange, or sometimes yellow below. They…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[70,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-406489","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115165778663397747","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}