The Jersey Tiger Moth, Euplagia quadripunctaria, is a largish distinctive moth that was first described by Nikolaus Poda von Newhas in 1766. 

The forewings are black with cream-coloured diagonal stripes and the hind-wings are normally red with black spotting, hence the reference to the Francoist Spanish flag. 

It is on the wing mostly in August and can be seen almost anywhere especially in gardens during the day and it comes readily to light traps at night. 

There is also a form of the moth that has a yellow hind-wing known as lutescens.

This is a Continental species that was only seen in Britain as an occasional immigrant but became a well-established resident in the Channel Islands and then South Devon from where it spread quite rapidly into Wales and the south coast of England, especially the IW.

It is now found as far north as London. 

The first Island record was a stray immigrant seen at Bonchurch in 1877 by H. Rowland-Brown.

The next was on August 28, 1935, in the garden of Sir Edward Poulton at St Helens. 

There was then a long gap until one was seen at Norton Green in 1985 followed by a dead specimen on Tennyson Down on September 11, 1991. 

In recent years it has become increasingly common with over 1,000 Island records to date.

A moth recorder in Newport had 124 come to a light trap in 2021.

The caterpillars feed on common nettle, of which there is no shortage! 

The numerous records in the London area of late perhaps indicate a systematic release programme — Tiger Moth caterpillars can be purchased on line for £16.95 for ten.

Out of interest, the famous Tiger Moth training aeroplane was so named because of its designer Geoffrey de Havilland’s great interest in insects, especially moths.

Of the 15 insect named designs of his, the best known is probably the Mosquito aircraft which gained much renown in the Second World War.

In the days of myths and legends, moths were usually depicted as omens of mortality, imparting the hidden knowledge of the afterlife such as the end of something and the start of something new but not necessarily caused by death.

Conversely, they could also signify immortality or a representation of a departed soul returning to earth.