I probably wouldn’t have noticed this gorgeous moth but, when I was standing chatting to an ecologist I hadn’t seen for a while, he spotted it, clinging on to a piece of grass close to the ground.

It’s a Pale tussock moth (Calliteara pudibunda), a female who was busy laying an abundance of eggs – hopefully, you will be able to see them, on the grass stem underneath and below her body, in my first photo and in the photo on the right below. I’m sure many of you will have seen the amazing tufty yellow caterpillars that will emerge from those eggs (see my blog Pale tussock moth caterpillar, 3 September 2022).

I’ve included the photo below left not only to show more detail of this beautiful moth but also so that you can see a distinctive aspect of her behaviour, what the UK Moths website describes as the ‘forward-facing “furry” legs at rest’.