Buff tips on strawberries

Riffling through the strawberry leaves for ripe berries yesterday morning, I almost brushed what I took to be a twig off the leaves without a thought. But then I realised (I twigged…) that it wasn’t a twig it was a moth. And in fact it wasn’t one but two.

Buff tip moths on a strawberry leaf – at a glance, they look like a snapped twig

These are buff tip moths (Phalera bucephala). Their caterpillars are voracious eaters with unfussy tastes. I suppose they could be called a pest, but their camouflage is undeniably impressive and cunning. So I left them.