UKC

This beauty has took up residence at my work. A real beauty. 

Lovely things. Had one pop into my flat to say hello on Friday night. Took a few pics then sent it on it's way.

I'm  trying to Id the bird flying out the back of each wing. A Gull?

Never noticed that. Yes, it’s an albino immature white headed pigeon gull dove bird. 

Indeed, a real beauty. Moths are often under-rated compared to butterflies, although you can get some stunning butterflies of course.

Here is another 'white moth' this time a Heliotrope Moth. Hope the link works, coz last time I made a real dogs dinner of it. Here goes...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/194788854@N05/52217611149/in/dateposted-publi...

That’s a cracker !

Well spotted.  It took me some time to work out what the hell you meant!

Thats a beautiful moth - as are many, many more.

I wonder why many moths - especially those that fly at night have or need so many stunning colouration??   Most use smell to locate their mates  don't they?

Or it just the fact that they have developed those colours at because at night they are generally invisible to any sighted predators therefore evolution has simply 'allowed' them to develop these colours?

I often wondered about moths vs butterflies (and also frogs vs toads) when they branched off the evolutionary tree, Is one a subset of another, or vice versa. Or did they branch off at different times ?

IIRC (might be wrong here) eagles and falcons branched off at different points/times, and although  they are so similar now as classic 'birds of prey', IIRC they indeed had a parallel evolution to become what they are now - superb hunters with keen eye sight and incredible talons.