Twenty years and more ago, when I opened my front door on a warm summer evening my porch light would have attracted up to a dozen moths of several species. Now, I never see any.

This reflects the overall situation whereby during the past thirty years, moths have declined by over eighty percent, which is very worrying as they play a major role pollinating plants and crops.

However, happily there is one moth that is bucking the trend and that is the colourful Jersey tiger moth.

Once confined to the Channel Islands ( hence the name), and the west country coastline, within the last three years the moth has moved northwards and can be seen quite regularly in leafy gardens and parks around South West London.

Whilst most moths fly at night, there are more day-flying moths than butterflies in Britain.The Jersey tiger moth has a wing in both camps and flies both by night and day and is sometimes mistaken for a butterfly.

The tiger has prominent white stripes on the upper forewings while the hind wings range from red to yellow with black spots ( pictured).

Eggs are laid on a wide variety of plants including dead nettle, stinging nettle, bramble and hemp agrimony.

All tiger moth species caterpillars are hairy and nicknamed 'woolly bears', a favourite food of cuckoos.