cyanblack 8005 c spine 16 mm process black | process cyan | pms 8005 c (c) trim fold fold trim ‘A bold and fascinating series’ The Independent ‘This series . calls itself “a new kind of animal history”. M It is, splendidly, even brilliantly, so. I have nothing but praise for it’ oth The Spectator Unlike their gaudy day-flying cousins, moths seem to reside in the shadows Gandy Matthew as denizens of the night, circling around street lights or caught momentarily in the glare of car headlights on a country lane. There are, however, many more species of day-flying moths than there are of butterflies, and as for colours and patterns, many moths rival or even exceed butterflies in the dazzling range oth of their markings. M The study of moths formed an integral part of early natural history and many thousands of drawings, paintings and physical specimens remain in museum Matthew Gandy collections around the world. In recent years there has been a renewed surge of interest in moths facilitated by advances in digital photography. There is a rich history of the naming of moths in early cultures of nature: from the Merveille du Jour, the Green-brindled Crescent, the Clifden Nonpareil and the strikingly named Death’s-head Hawk-moth, these creatures evoke a sense of wonder that connects such disparate fields as folklore, literature, the history of place and early scientific texts. Matthew Gandy is Professor of Geography at the University of Cambridge. His previous books include Concrete and Clay: Reworking Nature in New York City (2002) and The Fabric of Space: Water, Modernity, and the Urban Imagination (2014). with 120 illustrations, 103 in colour natural history ISBN 978-1-78023-585-1 reaktion books ltd www.reaktionbooks.co.uk @reaktionbooks 9781780235851 Animal series P/B_Cover v9 001_005_Moth_Frontmatter & Contents_001_005_Cow_Prelims 02/03/2016 15:17 Page 5 Contents 1 Multitudes 7 2 Appellations 42 3 Aurelians 58 4 Drawn to the Flame 87 5 Visitations 105 6 Any Colour You Like 128 7 Pretenders 140 8 Spinners and Monsters 173 9 Lines of Flight 195 Timeline 198 References 201 Select Bibliography 220 Associations and Websites 226 Acknowledgements 229 Photo Acknowledgements 230 Index 233 v9 006_057_Moth chap 1-chap 2_smc 02/03/2016 15:14 Page 6 v9 006_057_Moth chap 1-chap 2_smc 02/03/2016 15:14 Page 7 1 Multitudes Ea quae scimus sunt pars minima eorum quae ignoramus. (The ones we know form only a fraction of the many of which we have no knowledge.) Carl Linnaeus1 Most of us, said Austerlitz, know nothing of moths except that they eat holes in carpets and clothes and have to be kept at bay by the use of camphor and naphthalene, although in truth their lineage is among the most ancient and most remarkable in the whole history of nature. W. G. Sebald2 Unlike their gaudy day-flying cousins, moths seem to reside in the shadows, denizens of the night circling around streetlights or caught momentarily in the glare of car headlights on a country lane. If butterflies have become a metaphor for graceful exhibitionism, gliding effortlessly between flowers or basking in bright sunshine, moths have too often been relegated to a realm of darkness and mystery. As for closer encounters with moths, like those to which W. G. Sebald alludes, these are more likely to be the dismay at find- ing a favourite sweater reduced to a kind of woollen version of Emmental cheese. The idea that butterflies and moths are related yet opposites is somewhat artificial. For a start, there are many more species of day-flying moths than there are butterflies, and as for colours and patterns, many moths rival or even exceed butterflies in the dazzling range of their markings. In taxonomic terms, there is no substantive distinction between moths and butterflies as they are grouped together under the insect order Lepidoptera, a term first used by Centre-barred Sallow, Atethmia the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1735. It derives from the centrago, Greek words (lepís), meaning ‘scale’, and (pterón), photographed in λεπίς πτερόν Stoke Newington, meaning ‘wing’, because their wings are covered by thousands of London. 7 v9 006_057_Moth chap 1-chap 2_smc 02/03/2016 15:15 Page 22 of Europe’s largest moth, the Great Peacock Moth, Saturnia pyri, in a ‘wire-gauze bell jar’ in his study. Later that day, as his family were going to bed, his young son suddenly began to shout with excitement: ‘Come quick!’ he screams. ‘Come and see these moths, big as birds! The room is full of them!’ I hurry in. There is enough to justify the child’s enthusiastic and hyperbolical exclamations, an invasion as yet unprecedented in our house, a raid of giant Moths.24 Jean-Henri Fabre photographed by In all, Fabre counted over 40 male moths that had entered the Félix Nadar (1880). Fabre was an house. Unable to explain the extraordinary scene, he wondered acute observer of whether moths had some hidden means of communication, a ‘wire- insect behaviour and a significant less telegraphy’ analogous to the recently discovered Hertzian radio influence on vital- waves.25 We now know the mechanism behind this signalling: in ist philosophies of order to attract a mate, the female releases a small amount of nature. pheromones from her body at a precise moment that will ensure the chemicals are carried downwind. In a further twist to this olfactory choreography, closely related species of silk moths release pheromones at different times so that their courtship is staggered through the night.26 Though the precise chemical compounds for many species have yet to be identified, scientists are able to use synthetically produced pheromones to monitor pest species and also to record highly elusive species such as the wasp-mimicking Sesiidae, whose presence can sometimes only be revealed by chem- ical lures. However, the remarkable ability of moths to communicate with each other over vast distances perpetuates a sense of mystery even today, despite our greater awareness of this natural chemistry; in Dario Argento’s cult horror film Profondo Rosso (1975), this ability is attributed to telepathic powers.The film’s main protagonist is engaged in research into the communicative power of insects (a 22 v9 006_057_Moth chap 1-chap 2_smc 02/03/2016 15:15 Page 42 2 Appellations Natural history is nothing more than the nomination of the visible. Michel Foucault1 The English word ‘moth’ is of Germanic origin, and can be traced to the Old English moththe or mo e, similar to the Northumbrian ðð moh e, derived in turn from the Old Norse motti. Until the sixteenth ð century, however, the word ‘moth’ was mainly used in relation to the larvae of some species that devour clothes and fabrics. The Old Testament’s Book of Isaiah, for example, uses the clothes moth as a warning – ‘For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool’ – while in the New Testament’s Gospel of St Matthew, Jesus warns against worldly goods (‘Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust doth corrupt.’)2 The clothes moth also makes an appearance in Shake - s peare’s Coriolanus, where Penelope laments that ‘all the yarn she spun on Ulysses’ absence did but fill Ithaca full of moths’ (i.3). The modern usage has diverged, however, since the English word ‘moth’ is now used for all moths, whereas the closely related German word Motte, along with its Dutch and Scandinavian counterparts, is restricted to species that eat clothes, grain and other stored products. One of the earliest words used for both moths and butter - flies is the Greek word psykhe (psychê), first used by Aristotle, which also refers to the human soul.3 In its modern English usage, however, via the Latin psyche, it has acquired a narrower mean- ing as ‘spirit’, and even more recently a scientific sense through 42 v9 058_103_Moth chap 7-chap 9_smc 02/03/2016 15:18 Page 63 Frontispiece from Moses Harris, The Aurelian or Natural History of English Insects: Namely, Moths and Butterflies. Together with the plants on which they feed (1766). public appetite for natural history written in English rather than the traditional, scholarly Latin.17 The elaborate and expensive plates for The Aurelian illustrate moths found in and around London, and were dedicated to various international sponsors and benefactors, including Linnaeus and the merchant and naturalist Dru Drury, suggesting a new exchange of knowledge across national borders within Europe. The gradual adoption of a standardized taxonomic 63 v9 104_139_Moth chap 5-chap 6_smc 02/03/2016 15:21 Page 109 Most literary evocations of moths before the modern era have Jan van Kessel, focused on their attraction to light, but by the eighteenth century Stilleven van insecten en we can begin to detect other influences, with a renewed emphasis vruchten, on folklore and myth associated with the rise of European romanti- c. 1660–65. cisms. In European folklore, for example, white moths were considered to be the souls of the dead, and this may be the origin of the vernacular name for Hepialus humuli, the Ghost Moth, whose white-winged males hover at dusk over moors, heaths and other grassy places.5 It is likely that the Ghost Moth is among those species evoked in the final passage of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847): I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells; listened 109.