Buff Tip Moth (Phalera bucephala) - At rest, top view
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Buff Tip Moth (Phalera bucephala) - At rest, top view by Rob Farrow as part of the Geograph project.
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Buff Tip Moth (Phalera bucephala) - At rest, top view
Image: © Rob Farrow Taken: 16 Jul 2013
Continuing the occasional series dedicated to moths that find their way into our office, we have here the Buff Tip (Phalera bucephala) The circular cream tips to its forewings from which it gets its name, combined with the mottled streaky brown colouration of the rest of its wings make it accurately resemble a broken twig when viewed from the side. The illusion is not quite so convincing in this top view, possibly because I think this specimen may have gone a little bald and lost some of the little hairs from its head, which is now showing up brown rather than cream. Regardless of this however, if this moth was resting on a twig, I think it would certainly be very well camouflaged even so. Many moths rest with their wings folded along the length of their bodies in a "tent" or "roof" as seen in this example. See also Image] where the underwings are partly revealed.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.694137
Longitude
-0.177095