Sent when ready in April or May. The Emperor Moth is a favourite of many breeders and it is one I look forward to every year. The males differ considerably from the females being much smaller and more brightly coloured, exhibiting shades of purplish grey on the forewing, with tawny hind wings. The larger females are beautifully patterned with bluish-grey and white markings and the forewings are tipped with purple.
The larvae are black in the first instar, retaining this colour for the second instar, but are then also marked with orange line that starts just behind the final pair of true legs and extends down the length of the body. In the third instar they are still black, but exhibit a series of bands or hoops that don't quite meet along the back of the larvae and are orange or yellow in colour. The fourth instar seems the most variable in terms of markings, with the larvae now exhibiting a pea green colour with yellow spiracles; this green ground colour is marked with black in varying degrees of density. During the final instar the larvae are a duller green and the spiracles are set in thick black hoops that go around the body. On each hoop, there are either primrose yellow, peach, or mauve tubercles, which give the larvae a very attractive appearance.
Larval foodplants: bramble (rubus) heather, hawthorn (crataegus) sloe (prunus) buckthorn (rhamnacae) etc.
Rearing: plastic boxes, ventilated cages and sleeves.
Photographs: second instar larvae x 20 magnification; third instar larvae close up; 5th instar larvae; 5th instar larvae close up.
