Emperors

Females hanging up emitting pheromones

Wild male pairing up (once allowed in)

Each year I raise a colony of captive bred Emperor moths and use any males attracted by virign females as gene pool diversity for future generations.  It's quite nice watching the larva change from black to orange-black to green and black and then pupate.  So by mid-summer it's all done and dusted and they are in the cool garage for over Wintering.  Very successful last year and I had rather more pupae than ideal, so the sudden warming up produced a mass hatching.  Males don't hang around and will couple with females in minutes if allowed.  I did find some un-molested females and hung them up in a net cage and left them outside to see what happens. Male interest peaks between 2pm and 4pm, and I was delighted to see a large male flying around the net when I returned from a foray over the nearby Bringsty Common. Success!  I netted the male and put it in the cage and within a minute it had coupled. Peter Hall