David Element
Wildlife Photography and Digital Video Images
___________________________________________________________________Moths
55 – Emperor Moths
EMPEROR
MOTH Saturnia pavonia
(m)
EMPEROR
MOTH Saturnia pavonia (m)
·
Good fortune was required to have been able to
obtain these photographs of a male Emperor
Moth Saturnia pavonia (Saturnidae – the only British representative) in flight as it
was certainly not the intended subject! The author had been using a hide to
photograph Pied
Avocets Recurvirostra avosetta (illustrated elsewhere on this web site) as the
conditions were very windy, and the moth was noticed flying over a lagoon into
the wind through the hide window. A rapid switch to manual focussing was
required. Serendipitous, and highly unlikely to have been photographed in
flight otherwise! The Avocets were visible anyway, so the hide was only being
used to prevent the wind from buffeting the lens, but it was only because of
the stiff breeze that the moth was able to be photographed flying against it.
The images of the moth have been significantly cropped, so they are a bit
grainy. Note the prominent eye-spots and the huge
surface area of the feathered antennae, used for locating freshly emerged
females by the pheromones that they emit.
-> Moths 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122
-> Species Index, Common Names
-> Species Index, Scientific Names
-> Site Index
-> Home