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Ynys Môn (Anglesey) : The rosy footman is a relative newcomer to this part of Wales, bringing with it nectarine tones and markings like hieroglyphs
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Environment — Nigel Brown
I have a routine in the summer months that I like to keep to as often as I can. That is, to start my day in the company of moths.
This morning, after a gentle night – too cloudy to see the flight of Perseid meteors but mild enough to encourage the flight of moths – I head out to my Robinson light trap. It’s 40 years old and somewhat shabby, and sits between the meadow plots in our wildlife garden like a tiny flying saucer. With cuppa to hand, and joined by our familiar robin, who knows this routine well, I examine the live catch.
Among the hundreds of winged congeners peeping out, one immediately catches my attention – a rosy footman . Petite and delicately flushed with tones from peach to nectarine, the gently bowed forewings of this endearing little moth are inscribed with loops and dashes, like black hieroglyphs.
Related: Country diary: A moth that is more extraterrestrial than earthling | Mark Cocker
This distinctive coloration is thought to be a defensive device – a warning to predators such as birds that it is toxic. Its larva feeds on lichens from which it sequesters unique acids, rendering it unpalatable to most predators, right through to its adult stage.
As with many of Britain’s moths, the 20 species of footman moths are responding to the warming climate, and many have shown marked increases in range and abundance in the past 40 years. The rosy footman is well distributed in southern Britain, and is now expanding north and west as far as the maritime fringe of Wales. On Anglesey (Ynys Môn), it was first recorded in 2014, and since then has spread to several sites on the island, including our garden in 2022.
But finding a rosy footman also brings to mind growing up in Sheffield in the 1960s, when airborne pollutants such as sulphur dioxide from heavy industry excluded most lichens, and I don’t recall seeing any footmen then. A series of clean air acts have since seen lichens return to the city, and recent sightings of rosy footmen from the north Midlands indicate environmental change for the better.
The rosy footman combines arresting charm with an important ecological message.
• Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian’s Country Diary, 2018-2024, is available now at guardianbookshop.com
This morning, after a gentle night – too cloudy to see the flight of Perseid meteors but mild enough to encourage the flight of moths – I head out to my Robinson light trap. It’s 40 years old and somewhat shabby, and sits between the meadow plots in our wildlife garden like a tiny flying saucer. With cuppa to hand, and joined by our familiar robin, who knows this routine well, I examine the live catch.
This report is published with credit to The Guardian. Full available text from the wire is above. Read on The Guardian →
Source: The Guardian · Nigel Brown. Published 25 Aug 2026, 04:30 am.
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