Monday, April 11, 2011

Emergence of 4 Emperors

I've been expecting my Emperor Moths to emerge for the last few days. I even took them with me to the Isle of Wight at the weekend!! At lunchtime today I was overjoyed to find a newly emerged female Emperor Moth in the tank. I took it outside and placed it on a plant stem as it spent the next hour or so pumping out its wings and getting used to its new existence. It was soon joined by an emerging male.




I took the 2 moths up to Coopers Hill to see if I could attract any males to the female who was, no doubt, pumping out a cocktail of pheromones. There was no response over the next hour or so, which may have had something to do with the strong wind...but it was fascinating watching the pair of them.

I looked back down at the plastic tank to find that 2 more moths had suddenly appeared!!

And here are some of the silken cocoons from which the moths emerged. I shall have to keep my eye on these over the next few days....there's more to come yet!

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