Garden Tiger.
(Arctia caja)

On the edge of a path beside one of our two wooden out-buildings.

Information:
Fore-wing length: 28-37mm. Very distinctive - no other moth quite like them - but, equally, no Garden Tiger is exactly the same as any other Garden Tiger. The fore-wings have dark brown to black, variably shaped and sized, spots on a creamy white background. The underwing and body are yellow, as can just be seen in the photo, peeping through the gap between the fore-wings. The yellow underwing is marked with prominent black spots & the head sometimes has red markings on it.
The yellow underwings are, at rest, normally out of sight but their bold colouring serves two purposes; firstly, it warns potential predators that the moth is inedible because of the poisons it has in its body fluids; Secondly, by sudden unveiling the yellow and black underwings it confuses and frightens the attacker and flaps its wings and flies away.
Once very common, they seem to be getting more scarce but can still be seen flying July-August in open areas of gardens, woodland, fens, river banks and bushy sand-dunes.