{"id":15886,"date":"2022-05-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=15886"},"modified":"2022-05-11T13:55:48","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T11:55:48","slug":"big-and-beautiful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/2022\/05\/04\/big-and-beautiful\/","title":{"rendered":"Big and beautiful"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Catch the showy colours of one of Britain\u2019s largest moths<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Look for elephant hawkmoths at dusk in parks, gardens, woodland edges, rough grassland and sand dunes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

IT IS MAY, AND THAT MEANS HAWKMOTH season is here again. Hawkmoths are huge and lovely, ensuring they are the most celebrated of all moth families. These are the moths everyone wants to see. In both size and range of colours, they outclass most British butterflies. But perhaps the comparison is bogus, because, scientifically speaking, there is no clear-cut difference between butterflies and moths, just as toads are technically frogs. James Lowen, author of Much <\/em>Ado <\/em>About <\/em>Mothing, <\/em>puts it like this: \u201cButterflies are simply moths with good PR\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

With its beautiful pink-and-green livery, the elephant hawkmoth is one of the showiest members of a family known for its show-offs. It flies after dark from May to July in much of the UK, including in suburbia.<\/p>\n\n

From July to September, gardeners find its snake-like caterpillars \u2013 that look a little like an elephant\u2019s trunk \u2013 crawling over flowerbeds or patios in search of somewhere to pupate. To deter predators, the caterpillars have two black eyespots on their backs. <\/p>\n\n

BH <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Photo: HAWKMOTH: DAVID CHAPMAN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Catch the showy colours of one of Britain\u2019s largest moths<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":15882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"26","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"26","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_26-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_26-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"May-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"May-2022","purple_external_id":"May-2022-26-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"May-2022-26-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000087231||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000087231||","purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"58d61955-0ac4-406c-83f1-ab6f21d86b70","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-05-06T07:44:17Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"f6e44800-685c-4cbc-a343-145279cff1a2","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-05-11T11:55:53Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/A9uRIAGhcTLyjQxRSec_xog","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[25],"tags":[14],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/f3a42d9f-3105-46b4-8a6c-4a6f34ef07f9.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/f3a42d9f-3105-46b4-8a6c-4a6f34ef07f9.jpg",2048,2006,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/f3a42d9f-3105-46b4-8a6c-4a6f34ef07f9-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/f3a42d9f-3105-46b4-8a6c-4a6f34ef07f9-300x294.jpg",300,294,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/f3a42d9f-3105-46b4-8a6c-4a6f34ef07f9-768x752.jpg",768,752,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/f3a42d9f-3105-46b4-8a6c-4a6f34ef07f9-1024x1003.jpg",800,784,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/f3a42d9f-3105-46b4-8a6c-4a6f34ef07f9-1536x1505.jpg",1536,1505,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/04\/f3a42d9f-3105-46b4-8a6c-4a6f34ef07f9.jpg",2048,2006,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Catch the showy colours of one of Britain\u2019s largest moths","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15886"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16440,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15886\/revisions\/16440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}