This beauty is a poplar hawk-moth (Laothoe populi). It's a large moth with a wingspan of 70-100mm. At rest it has this strange attitude with the hindwings held ahead of the forewings I have never seen one before, although I did post photos of its impressive caterpillar a couple of years ago. The caterpillar is voracious but the adult moth has no proboscis and does not feed in its short life.
I am very grateful to David Noble-Rollin (who was with one of his photography classes at Gosforth Park) and Paul Drummond (who caught it in his moth trap) for the opportunity to photograph it.
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