Emperor moths

The Emperor Moth pheromone lure is amazingly potent.  I have tried it out twice this year and each time it produced six male moths within a few minutes.  The first time was at Hepple, west of Rothbury in Northumberland, on the heather moorland near the border with Harwood Forest. The lure is hidden under the bark of a bit of dead wood.  To start with the moths were flapping around like crazy, making it almost impossible to get a photo.  Then one settled on the wood very briefly,

and another landed in the heather nearby and stayed still for several minutes.

A few days later I took the lure to Edmonbyers Common in County Durham.  This was old scruffy heather but the moths arrived within a couple of minutes.  Here you can see three with the pheromone-impregnated lure tucked under the bark.

Here are two fighting to get to the imaginary female.

They are very excited when they arrive but sometimes seem to get tired and just stop for a rest, which makes the photography much easier.  This one stopped on the wood for several minutes, probably exhausted.

It has amazing feathery antennae to pick up the faintest scent of a female.

Eventually I picked it up to be out of the way of the others.  I had taken great care not to get any pheromone on my hands but it was a cold day and the moth seemed happy to be on my warm hand.

I found another rather faded and tattered moth in the grass a metre or so away.

And another worn and tatty individual.

I have yet to see a female Emperor Moth.  She is larger and has the same markings but the background is pale blue-grey, even more beautiful than the pink-brown of the male.