Mansur Al Fahad kindly sent me a photo of a Crimson-speckled
Footman Utetheisa pulchella taken by him near Zulfi. The
Crimson-speckled Footman is a small, day flying moth measuring approximately
30-40mm in length. They are mostly white, speckled with black and crimson and
have characteristic black eyes. The legs are white in colour and the antennae
are black. The moth is found from Africa to southern Europe, throughout the
Middle East, central & southern Asia and Australia. They are migratory
moths but I assume the ones I have been seeing in the last few days are
residents? They are seen every year in Dhahran in February and March and are
not very easy to see until you flush one from its resting place and it flies to
its new location. They very rarely, if ever, land with their wings spread and
almost always end up in a position similar to that in the photograph above.
