15 Monday Dec 2025
Posted in insects
Tags
British moths, climate change affecting wildlife, Euplagia quadripunctaria, Jersey tiger, Jersey tiger moth, moth
As I wrote on 30 August, after a lull in sightings over the past couple of years, 2025 was A good year for Jersey tigers, and it seems very likely that our changing climate has a lot to do with this year’s notable increase in sightings of this stunning moth.
30 Saturday Aug 2025
Posted in insects
Tags
British moths, climate change affecting wildlife, Euplagia quadripunctaria, Jersey tiger, Jersey tiger moth, moth
In the summers of 2018, 2019 and 2020 one of the local nature reserves near me held what seemed like a healthy population of Jersey tiger moths (Euplagia quadripunctaria), then they vanished. I don’t know why this was but several people have looked for them at the reserve in the intervening years and, though the occasional single moth has been sighted, the healthy population is no more. Away from that reserve, I would struggle to see any Jersey tigers, and saw none at all in 2021 and 2022.
So, this year, it has been an absolute delight for me to have enjoyed many, seemingly random sightings of these beautiful moths. By random, I mean that there haven’t been any large numbers concentrated in any specific location or area; instead, either I’ve spotted them lurking on trees and bushes, or my passing has disturbed them, there’s been a flash of their vibrant orange underwings as they’ve fluttered out and I’ve seen them once they’ve resettled.
And it seems my experience of seeing greater numbers of Jersey tigers this year has not been unique. This is a species that is included in Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count, and, even before the count had ended, with 7 of the count’s 24 days remaining, that organisation had noted a ‘whopping 78%’ increase in reported Jersey tigers this year compared to last year. Butterfly Conservation’s blog post speculates that the dramatic increase was due to this summer’s record-breaking high temperatures.
As Dr Richard Fox, BC’s Head of Science is quoted as saying
The increase we’re seeing in Jersey Tiger moth sightings is a striking example of how climate change is reshaping the distribution of wildlife.
While it’s a delight to spot such a vibrant moth in gardens, parks and green spaces, it’s also a reminder of how rising temperatures are altering our natural environment.
21 Friday Aug 2020
Tags
British moths, Euplagia quadripunctaria, Jersey tiger, Lavernock Nature Reserve, moth, tiger moths
As many local events in Nature’s calendar have been tracking a couple of weeks earlier than usual this year, I first started this year’s tiger hunting ten days ago but it took three visits to Lavernock Nature Reserve and much staring at the flowers of Hemp-agrimony before I finally found a tiger.
I am not, of course, talking about the big cats – I am vehemently opposed to all hunting! My hunt was for the gorgeous moth that is the Jersey tiger (Euplagia quadripunctaria).
Having spread northwards in southern England, from Devon in to Somerset, these moths tackled the watery expanse of the Bristol Channel in stages, recorded on the island of Flat Holm in 2008 but not making the final flight across to the south Wales coast until 2012.
Though they have avoided big city Cardiff – the single Cardiff record thus far was in 2017, the Jersey tiger now appears to be well established along a section of the Vale of Glamorgan coastline, from Penarth to Barry, and presumably it will spread further as climate and environmental conditions allow.
Last Monday, 17 August, I spotted these two, feeding quite close together, at Lavernock (the first two photos here are one moth; the other three show the second tiger). Though they have been recorded on various flowers, I’ve only ever seen them on Hemp-agrimony, which is one of the food plants used by their larvae. I live in hope of finding one of their funky-looking caterpillars but I was over the moon to see my first tigers of the year.
14 Monday Aug 2017
Tags
British moths, Euplagia quadripunctaria, Jersey tiger, Lavernock Nature Reserve, moth, moths, UK moths
So, my question today is how many moths does it take to make a colony?
I passed through Lavernock Nature Reserve again yesterday and found two more Jersey tigers (Euplagia quadripunctaria). I can tell neither of these is the same as the one I saw three days earlier because the spots on their wings are all different (see inside bottom edge of right wing in these photos of all three, as shown below). I’m hoping this means there is now a colony of Jersey tigers becoming established in the reserve, rather than immigrants all arriving at the same time.
12 Saturday Aug 2017
Ooo look, a Red admiral … hang on a minute … what’s that???!!!
I went looking for migrant birds at high tide at Sully beach – and found nothing more exotic than some Rock pipits and Turnstones – but my walk home, along the coastal path, took me through Lavernock Nature Reserve and there I got lucky. There I found an altogether different migrant, a beautiful Jersey tiger (Euplagia quadripunctaria).
Obviously, it’s not a mammal that’s swum across the Channel from Jersey: it’s a moth. It may also not have been an immigrant, as colonies have become established in a couple of places along the southern English coast in recent years. It is still, however, not so common in Wales, with only 24 records in the national database.
As you can see, it has gorgeous and quite distinctive markings – just look at that bright orange underwing! – so there was no mistaking what it was. Let’s hope a few other Jersey tigers arrive to establish a colony in Lavernock’s wonderful wildflower meadows.
earthstar 
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