pink butterfly??

[Jez]

keeping your fingers crossed for so long!

[Dan Salter]

ahah! im with you now

[Jez]

So Dan since you picked up so quickly on this thread for good times sake-whats the chances for 2008? Edit with a Wink

[rowanwigg]

Hi,

I'm new but I just wanted to let people know that I've just seen a hot pink butterfly /moth on my window. I am not winding anyone up as I have just read the whole thread going back two years on this butterfly, I was that amazed to see it. It was very close in size and shape to the scotch burnet moth but a much more shocking pink colour.

It would be so interesting to know what has caused this rise in unexpected sightings of this moth, even if it is the scotch burnet which is not supposed to be seen in the West Midlands...

Anyone else seen it?

Rowan.

[harasseddad]

And funny enough I saw my first Cinnabar moth last friday - being suitably "Barbie pink" in my local garden center.

[Sal_B]

Glad to see that my eyes and others weren't playing tricks with me (I thought I'd stumbled on an urban/environmental myth for a minute!). I don't think the creature I saw was a Cinnabar moth (from photos I have seen), but then I only had a fleeting glimpse. If it is something new (unlikely, I know) perhaps it should be called 'Pandora' - as I certainly felt like I'd opened a can'o'worms when I mentioned it, Ha Ha!

I saw it by the Conference Centre in Bournemouth (beachside) if anyone lives that way and fancies a wander. I did go to Weymouth and Portland on holiday last week, but sadly no sightings - despite offering 4 kids and my friend financial enducements if they spotted it and a bigger one if we got a photo! (sadly the offer isn't open to a wider audience ).

Have attached archive links to a moth and dragonfly photo I took in the New Forest 2005 for interest (not of the pink butterfly) - but just to show that sometimes I do manage to get a photo:


[IMG]http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/archive/showphoto.php/photo/60807[IMG]http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/archive/showphoto.php/photo/60806

[harasseddad]

The crucial point about the cinnabar is that it doesn't look like its photos! When it's frozen by the camera you see the pattern on the forewings, but when the human eye sees one flying all that registers is the pink. It's a funny optical illusion, caused I suspect by a mixture of persistence of vision and something about how the human eye processes colour.

Your dragonfly is a keeled skimmer (Orthetrum coerulescens) by the way: nice photo

[Sal_B]

Thanks for this - it was a really lovely sight - a nice way to start the day and remind me that I do live in a real 'live' world; and you can't beat Mother Nature.

Thanks also for identifying my dragonfly.

[Niknak]

Hi all, i,ve just sat here for the last 30 mins reading the 7 pages about the elusive "Barbie".
Sorry to do this to you all, but i've just arrived back from a long dog walk through the pine woods on the north norfolk coast and googled "pink moth" as soon as I got back, as the insect was so stunning I had to see if I could find out what it was, as i've never seen anything so vivid in colour before. We watched it for a couple of minutes and as I set my phone to take a photo of it, it fluttered off...
I think it must be the "lesser photographed barbie moth" after reading all the feeds on here!
It was a very bright deep pink, definitely not red, as someone previously mentioned, fuscia comes to mind, but how many varieties and colours of fuscia are there....
The only thing I can think of that resembled the colour is my daughter's old bed linen, which was "Groovy Chick", a very deep pink.
Sorry to do this to all of you, but the plot thickens!
Nicky

[Jez]

Glad you have all seen it or them

Now's your quest to provide the answers


Good luck

Jez