Lunar Hornet Moths on the Patch

For about 15 years I have regularly searched Willows and Sallows on the patch for emergence holes or, better still adult Lunar Hornet Clearwings. 15 years and not a sniff.... If only someone had produced the pheromone ??

And then suddenly word spread that a new pheromone lure had appeared and was being sold by ALS. Within an hour a friend of mine, Paul, had ordered one and plans were made.

Two days later he received it, borrowed a trap from another patch entomologist and hung it in his garden. 40 minutes later the first patch record was under the belt.

 Because of Covid we are not meeting at houses so the plan was to try the Gordano Valley the next morning where 3 of us could keep safely distanced.

The first two spots we tried drew a blank along the main tracks so we headed to a likely looking tree. Bearing in mind that we had checked this very tree many times we still thought it a likely site and so Paul hung up the trap.

Within 20 mins we had seen three different, individual, moths, one of which actually entered the trap as can be seen from the photos below.

Returning home I borrowed the pheromone and stuck it up in my garden, though without the trap

Three minutes later I had one buzzing the lure so they were within a few hundred metres of my garden all these years. Quite remarkable really.