Some Moths smell of mothballs.

I was lucky enough to photograph a private collection of Moths and Butterflies today. They belonged to a friend's late father. Some had been caught in the 1950's. They looked a few weeks old, it was extraordinary.
They are all in airtight cases and there is a heavy dose of Moth Ball mix to protect them from being munched up, by their relatives.

I fell in love with Moths as a child, when a huge butter coloured male Oak Egger crashed through the window one night when we were on holiday in Devon.
I was lucky, my uncle was a great nature man and knew what it was and got a hand coloured book of moths down for me to look.
I was about 8. That was it. I was obsessed with trying to see the various breeds, the Hawk Moths being my ultimate type. I never saw a Death's Head moth or one of their spectacular caterpillars, despite many hours looking in potato fields.

Today I saw many Death's Head moths with their destinctive mark of the skull on their back.. They were all pinned in rows.
I think maybe I would have stopped at two, but I am not a collector. I could never have killed them. I loved finding the eggs and hatching and feeding the caterpillars. Then letting them go as they emerged as flying beings.
The furry ones were my favoutites of course. Who does not love to see one of those black and tanned chaps trundling long a hot summer path.

Out of the many photographs I took today, for future watercolours, I liked this the best. I think it is a Privet Hawk Moth, which was caught in 1951.