Last August I spotted an old established Sallow on a nearby Worcester housing estate which appeared to have some ancient-looking black holes near the base. Two weeks ago it looked the same but yesterday a quick visit immediately revealed a mating pair of Lunar Hornet Clearwings in cop about a metre up the main trunk. I 'rescued' them from potential danger - being a busy pathway and watched them on a stick in a jar for over two hours before they separated naturally. Kept them cool and calm overnight and returned them today once the rain stopped. A closer inspection of the tree found loads of fresh frass on one side about 10 inches above the ground, some complete exuvia cases and many more fragmented ones proving several adults had already emerged this summer. A few years ago a well known sallow at Weston-Super Mare, which had produced many LHM over a long period was found to have been petro-torched by some ignorant soles believing they were wasps or hornets............so I will try not to draw too much attention to this Worcester colony as there are still many idiots amongst us who have no respect whatsoever for nature!
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| Worcester: Female Lunar Hornet Clearwing |
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| Worcester: Sallow tree base |
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| Worcester: Lunar Hornet Clearwings |
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