During the first month of #MyMothYear, my field trips have focused on understanding the varying ways in which moths spend the winter months. Heralds, for example, hibernate. Vapourer moths see out the cold as eggs, whereas the nationally threatened Lunar Yellow Underwing spends January as a caterpillar, wiggling in the open air by night. After a fascinating afternoon picking the brains of Butterfly Conservation moth specialists Mark Parsons and Phil Sterling, Mark offered to take me out to see a couple of other stages in the moth life cycle. On the famous Dorset landmark of Portland Bill, Mark cracked open teasels and carline thistles to show me moth caterpillars burrowed within, plucked various leaves to focus my eyes on leaf-miner moth tracks and caterpillars, pointed out the tents of Browntail moth caterpillars and…

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