Forget the moths that eat your clothes. Most are beautiful and deserve to be loved | Tim Blackburn

First of all, moths are stunningly beautiful animals. Take the merveille du jour: a velvety plush of green, black and white, perfectly camouflaged to hide on a patch of lichen, but fabulous on any background. The puss moth is a thumb-sized 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, more gilded than its name implies. The elephant hawk-moth is candy-striped gold and bubblegum pink, and larger than most British butterflies.