Moths in general

Moths shown against a moonlit sky and framed by an ivy-clad ruined Gothic window.

All are British species or visitors, including (clockwise from lower left): the Convolvulus hawk-moth Agrius convolvuli; the Puss moth Cerura vinula; the Death’s head hawk-moth Acherontia atropos; the Herald Scoliopteryx libatrix; the Buff-tip Phalera bucephala; the Swallow-tailed moth Ourapteryx sambucaria; the Currant clearwing Synanthedon tipuliformis; the Angle shades Phlogophora meticulosa; the Magpie Abraxas grossulariata; the Bark-clothes moth Tinea corticella; the Emperor moth Saturnia pavonia; the Goat moth Cossus cossus; and the Red underwing Catocala nupta.

Frontispiece of the book Episodes of insect life by Acheta Domestica (pseud., Miss L.M. Budgen], second series (Reeve, Benham and Reeve, London, 1850).

Inscribed below: ‘L.M.B. del. Reeve, Benham & Reeve lith.’ Also below, two lines of verse from Lord Byron’s Siege of Corinth: ‘Remnants of things that have passed away/Fragments of stone reared by creatures of clay’.

Accompanying text described these as: ‘A group of moths – agents and emblems of decay – holding their twilight or nocturnal revels amidst the ruins of a noble structure, of the transition period from early English…’

Miss L.M. Budgen (fl.1850s) British illustrator and popular writer on floriculture and entomology.