The Lesser Tattered Peacock Butterfly.

This rather sorry specimen was sunning itself on the compost bin this afternoon. I managed to grab this preliminary blip from 6 feet away but, as soon as I'd fitted a close-up lens to get a better picture, it buggered off. How inconsiderate can you get?

I can find out very little about the life cycle of the specie, but would assume that, like many other insects, the mated females hibernate and, as soon as they wake up, look for somewhere to lay their eggs. This one was probably upset because I'd just been pulling up all their larvae's' favourite food (nettles) as I react badly to the stings.
The males, once they've served their purpose, probably don't bother to do winter - it's just too much hassle and serves no Darwinian purpose.

As a snotty nosed schoolboy I collected some peacock caterpillars, complete with their nettles, stuffed them into a jam jar and took them into school so that we could watch them develop. It was a bad move, I was immediately given the responsibility of providing their daily food ration.
I know all of nature is wonderful, it's just that I think nettles are rather less so than just about everything else.