Emperor moths Saturnia pavonia are stunningly beautiful and it was great to hear that one had been found at Dove Stone over the weekend - thanks to Jamie for that. Emperors inhabit a range of habitats but are most often associated with heathland and moorland so Dove Stone is an area with the right habitat. That said, although widespread Emperors aren't common.
Male emperors are day flying with the larger, slightly greyer but no less spectacular females flying at night. Day flying males will be looking for females; the females have a pheromone gland at the end of their abdomen and this gives off a scent to attract male Emperors who have a feathery antennae that they use to detect these pheromones. It's thought the males are able to detect the pheromones from several kilometres away - amazing !
And if you're at Dove Stone over the next few weeks we hope that we'll be able to show people Emperor moths in person - if you see our resident moth specialist, Jamie, treading the paths around Dove Stone then say hello - he'd be happy to tell you more ! And on the subject of moth trapping our next night-time moth trapping drop in is on Friday June 22nd followed by a Saturday moth-morning on June 23rd. Full details on our events pages. More on this soon...