Emperor Moth

 

It being that time of the year again, the Emperor Moth lures were taken out of the freezers and Dave and I headed off to Iping Common to see if we could get any pictures.  At first it all seemed a bit disappointing, with no interest being shown in the pheromones, but after about half an hour the first moth appeared and proceeded to search in vain for the female it was expecting.

The moths soon learn that they have been duped and after fluttering around the lure for a couple of minutes and searching the adjacent grass tufts they loose interest and drift away.  Disappointing for the moth and disappointing for us as there is little chance of getting a decent picture when they don't settle.

What you are waiting for is the moth that is exhausted from the search and lands on an adjacent tree or bush for a refreshing nap. Give them a couple of minutes to settle and they are then very amenable to close approach and if you are gentle to moving them to a better perch.

The picture above showing Dave moving one of the later finds on the end of his finger to a more convenient location for photographing it.

It was also nice to get a view of the underside of the moth and to be able to record the eye spots on the underwing as well.

The Emperor Moth, Saturnia pavonia, is the only member of the Saturniidae family of moths found in the British Isles. The male flies during the day with the female flying at night. A strange strategy for the survival of the species but then the male is supposed to be able to detect the female at a range of a couple of kilometers so will probably find her whilst she is roosting.

We saw about a dozen Emperor moths on the day, with a maximum of three flying at any one time. They were in different parts of the common but it is possible that some followed us around or were attracted for a second time.

Talk to it nicely and the moth may even flash the orange underwing at you but you need to be quick with the camera as the opportunity will not be there for long.

All we have to do know is find a female to photograph. A slightly larger and to my mind more impressive moth. Also a much harder challenge.

And the lure goes back in the freezer for another year.

Emperor Moth

 

I was out with Dave yesterday looking for Emperor Moths and trying out the first of our pheromone lures. They were really purchased to go looking for Clearwing Moths later in the year but the addition of the Emperor Moth lure to the purchase was too good a chance to miss.

I have seen Emperor moths before but rarely close up. They sometimes fly past at high speed, when they are easy to mistake for Peacock butterflies, but they always seem to disappear into the distance without putting down anywhere. Once settled they are difficult to find. They may be brightly coloured but they blend in well with the bracken and undergrowth.

The good news is that the lures do work. On a walk around one of the commons we saw probably a dozen different moths with as many as five together at one point. The bad news is that converting the sighting into a good picture is not as easy as we had hoped.

Emperor on my rucksack looking for the lure

The real problem is that the male is expecting to find a female and with the pheromone telling him he is onto a good thing, he seems to get a bit frantic when he cannot find her. We were not interested in capturing the moth or harming it in any way so all we could hope for was a lucky freeze the action shot whilst it was searching or hope that it tired itself out and rested somewhere in sight of where we were standing. Usually they quickly got bored and flew off into the distance.

This one has found the lure hanging on the back of the rucksack.

The next three shots are all of the same moth. He spent a long time frantically flapping around searching for the lure and eventually seemed to have exhausted himself and settled close by to rest. We managed to track and relocate him, although he was in a position where we could not get a photograph. Fortunately  he proved very obliging in allowing us to transfer him to better perches and to get our photographs. However once settled and in roost mode he would not show the underwings which really make the pictures.

Sometimes you get the ideal pose but from the wrong moth. This one has suffered extensive damage to its wings although it has still retained most of its scales and strong colours.

Heavily damaged specimen

We still have a bit of a learning curve to go through on using the lures. Possibly deploying them late afternoon may find the males calmer and more likely to present picture opportunities. Useful as they are, the old approach of finding the male in the throws of mating and unlikely to be distracted is still the most promising way to get a picture.

Better pictures to come I hope!