Forget the clothes-eating critters-we should love moths in all their beauty

Let me start with a confession: I love moths. If your instant reaction to that statement is a shudder and expression of dislike (or worse), be assured that you're not alone. It is the commonest response I get. But moths are extremely important and beautiful creatures, and we should all love them.

- Tim Blackburn

Almost all of them, anyway. There's a couple of tiny species that nibble holes in your jumpers and chew your carpets, and I'm not going to try to make you love those. Feel free to hate them with a vengeance, particularly as autumn draws in and you open your jumper drawer to find unwanted evidence of their labours. But Britain has about 2,500 other species of moths, and it would be unfair to let the clothes moths colour your perceptions of the other 99.9%. And the others really are special.

First of all, moths are stunningly beautiful animals. Take the merveille du jour: a velvety plush of green, black and white, camouflaged to hide on lichen, but fabulous on any background. The puss moth is a thumbsized swatch of ermine fur coat. The burnished brass looks a colourless blob when angled away from you, but turn it sideways and its metallic sheen is revealed. The elephant hawk-moth is candy-striped gold and bubblegum pink, and larger than most British butterflies.