Visit by Black Arches

Just as I was going to bed, knowing I hadn't managed to take any photos, I spotted this beautiful Black Arches moth on the curtain. It had actually settled on a leaf that is part of the curtain pattern - however not an oak leaf, which is the food plant for this insect in the wild (as a larva of course). It is quite widespread in suitable woodland areas in this county, but it was interesting to find that Col. Sidney Hardinge Kershaw, an enthusiastic lepidopterist, recorded it in the 1930s at his house at the top of my road.