Anja Murray: Fascinating and essential — 1,500 reasons to save moths and their habitats

Clockwise from top left: emperor moth, hummingbird hawk moth, six-spotted burnet moth, buff-tip moth

Clambering through a woodland or strolling along a hedge-lined laneway, each habitat we explore has its own array of specialist plants and animals to see. Sandy shores have succulent plants and scuttling crabs; peat bogs have sphagnum mosses and dragonflies; and deciduous woodlands are layered up with tall trees, hanging trails of honeysuckle and a constant chorus of birdsong. And in each of these distinctive ecosystems, there is always an array of specialist moths.

Among the 1,500 different species of moth occurring in Ireland, there is a massive variety. Most are night flying, and many have evolved to blend in with their surrounds. Some look just like a piece of a leaf, others you can hardly see on a branch even if you are looking right at them. The majority of moth species are tiny micro-moths with a wingspan of less than 20mm.

There is a massive variety of moth in Ireland. Picture: Patrick Clement / Natural History Museum

Far easier to observe are bigger moths like the ‘magpie moth’, conspicuous during June and July. It flies among gardens, hedges, grasslands and even coastal dunes where it likes to be among hawthorn, hazel, elder, and other native trees and shrubs. The ‘garden tiger moth’ is another species that appears in June in gardens, damp meadows, and scrubby dunes. Their super funky wing patterning is worth looking out for.

The 6-spotted Burnet moth with black wings and bright red spots is an easy species to see and identify among the sand dunes and flowery meadows where it lives. Unlike most moths, this species is active by day, adults having an affinity for thistles, knapweeds and scabious. If you see this eye-catching little moth on your summer rambles by the coast, watch closely till it spreads its spotted wings to see its teddy bear-like body. The red and black colouring indicates danger, as Burnett moths contain poisonous hydrogen cyanide that is lethal in large doses and acts as a deterrent to predators.

A six-spot Burnet moth

Hummingbird hawkmoths are an incredible, large moth, out and about on the wing during the daytime and active from June and September. These Mediterranean migrants are sometimes seen in gardens and along flower-rich hedgerows, hovering like a hummingbird to suck out nectar from large tubular flowers, like honeysuckle. Another species of hawkmoth is the elephant hawk moth which is exquisitely beautiful with its bright pink and mustard colouring.

With such a massive variety of moths, compared to only around 35 different species of butterfly in Ireland, it seems a little unfair that butterflies get all the attention, though there is really very little difference between the two groups. Both make up a family of insects called Lepidoptera, from the Greek words ‘lepido’, meaning scaly, and ‘ptera’ which generally refers to things with wings. Butterflies and moths both have microscopic scales covering their wings. Each tiny overlapping scale can be pigmented differently, like a mosaic. This design gives them the ability for a wonderful array of colours and patterns, and also allows for the shimmering iridescence that many species display.

A Hummingbird Hawk-moth sucking up geranium nectar

Caterpillars of both butterflies and moths eat leaves, while winged adults drink nectar for sustenance. They have an appendage called a proboscis which they unfurl when they land on a flower to use like a drinking straw for sucking up nectar from the core of the flower. This is why both butterflies and moths need plenty of native flowering plants in the landscape for them to be able to survive and reproduce. As they drink nectar, moths tend to pick up pollen on their fluffy bodies, which they then transport to other flowers.

We hear a lot about the importance of pollinators in our landscapes, vital vectors of pollen for wild plants and domesticated crops. We all know that bees are super effective pollinators, with wild bumblebees (of which there are 21 species in Ireland), solitary bees (of which there are 78 species in Ireland) and the domesticated honey bee (one species) all contributing to pollination. Hoverflies are active pollinators too, each of the 180 different species here with their own habitat niche. It turns out that moths also have have a vital role as pollinators, but differ from the others in that they are active mostly at night so their contribution to pollination has long been overlooked. Recent research in Britain suggests that the role of night flying moths in maintaining the reproductive success of wild plants and helping to pollinate crops is greater than previously understood.

Phalera Bucephala

Apart from contributing to our ecosystems as pollinators, moths are food for many other animals, especially bats and birds. Because bats are also active at night, they are highly reliant on moths, chasing them down in darkness using pulses of sound (echolocation). In response, moths have evolved ear-like appendages with which they can listen out for the high-pitched squeaks bats emit when pursuing them. All around us each evening, bats are chasing down moths and moths are swerving to avoid becoming dinner, sometimes wrapping themselves up in their wings to dive-bomb downwards, sometimes turning sharply to escape their pursuer.

At this time of year, when so many birds are tending nests full of hungry young chicks, moths and their caterpillars are especially important as a mainstay of the diet of swifts, swallows, house martins, blue tits, great tits, robins, wrens blackbirds, and many more.

Hummingbird Hawk-moth sucking up geranium nectar

It is alarming, therefore, to learn that moths, along with the populations of many other insects, have been rapidly declining since the 1970s. Changes in land use, clearance of wild habitats and loss of plant diversity across the country have led to a loss of resources for many moth species. This in turn has contributed to the decline in some bird species and the decrease in the abundance of bats over farmland.

We can help moths and other invertebrates by restoring nature: by having healthy native woodlands filled with a variety of trees, climbers and flower-rich understorey; by protecting and restoring peat-bogs; by keeping remaining areas of species-rich, flower-filled grassland on farms; and managing verges and gardens with wildflowers too. Moths are beautiful, fascinating and essential, just another 1,500 reasons why nature restoration is now crucial.