Old Lady Moth

As I opened the front door this morning to put out my empty organic vegetable box ready for today's delivery, today's picture flew in and landed on the doormat.

It is an called an “Old Lady” or “black underwing” (Mormo maura) moth belonging to the family Noctuidae. It is a large-winged sombre-coloured moth, attracted to light. The caterpillar feeds on Blackthorn and there are a lot of bushes opposite my house. Once photographed I placed it back outside on the leaves of one of the plants growing at the front of the house. I have included this as an extra because I think it shows its colours better despite one wing not fully in the picture.

The temperature at GMT today was twenty degrees Celsius.