BACKBLIP: A moth in Nanchang, Jiangxi, China

BACKBLIP: I was unable to blip while I was away in China for over two weeks (blipfoto is not accessible there). I'm attempting to catch up!

We spent two weeks in two Chinese cities during our adoption trip - briefly Beijing, then Nanchang in Jiangxi province for most of a week, then back to Beijing for the final week. As a biologist and naturalist (particularly one looking for blipfoto topics!), I had my eyes peeled for natural history photography topics. I am disappointed to say that we saw almost no birds or insects. It was early winter but temperatures in Nanchang at least were above 10 degrees Celsius so I did expect to see some wilife activity. I can't comment on the role of intense development, the obvious air pollution or the lack of greenspace in this apparent lack of urban wildlife. One delightful exception was this beautiful moth which we found sheltering from the wind and rain under the eaves of Nanchang's Tengwang Pavilion, a towering ancient pavilion dating back to the year 653 A.D. Down to a bit of Google searching, I think this beautiful wee moth is a Nyctemera adversata, a day-flying moth with a widespread distribution across central, east and south-east Asia.