Emperor moth

The male zooms about in the daytime looking for a female. She is slow and usually only flies at night.

You can see the males flying from the middle of April until late June.

The caterpillar starts out black and orange. Later it turns green with black rings and yellow or red spots.

It spends the winter as a pupa wrapped in a tough, hairy cocoon.

In Britain it is the only moth of its whole family, so people there just call it the emperor moth.