Now I thought I would close with the last moth on the sheet of six stamps, the Buff Tip Moth, but I could not find a card. So what I have done is go for the first first class stamp on the sheet, which is the Dark Crimson Underwing. And then I was shown this card, but puzzlingly it was called the Red Underwing Moth. Further investigation found that there are lots of Underwing Moths, a whole genus of them, two hundred and fifty species, formally known as Catocala, and discovered by Franz von Paula Schrank in 1802.
Our particular moth, the red underwing, or Catocala nupta was actually described by Carl Linnaeus in 1767. It has a wingspan of eighty millimetres and is mainly out and about in August and September.
This set first appears in our original British Trade Index as
William GOSSAGE & Sons, Ltd.,Widnes
- BUTTERFLIES & MOTHS. Sm. 67 x 36. Nd. (48)... GPC-2
That is reduced still more in our updated version, to :
William GOSSAGE & Sons, Ltd.,Widnes
- BUTTERFLIES & MOTHS. 67 x 36. Nd. (48)... GOS-090