The Vapourer moth has such a interesting life-cycle, the adult moth is wingless, from the side of the moth you can see what was once its wings, the moth which to me when fat with eggs looks like a hairy tick. If you did not know the subject you would never believe that it was a moth. I held the cocoon with the freshly emerged moth, from a caterpillar I found the previous year, in my garden. in a very short time there were two day flying male moths flying around my garden, they look like small butterflies in flight. They were tying to locate the female from the scent (pheromone) that she was emitting. In the end two males settled down each ether side trying to mate with her, or both thinking they had. I placed the branch in a flower pot and I did take pictures of female moth with two males. Over the the next few days she laid eggs all over her cocoon, and soon after laying eggs she died. The Caterpillars feed on many different deciduous trees, and develop into a very exotic looking caterpillars, it is covered in tufts of colourful hair, which is irritant to predators. When out filming I often see the caterpillars feeding often sunning themselves. This is an unusual moth and one I always enjoy filming even though it is a small species.

Interesting dates of of a metamorphosis from larvae to moth and female longevity. On the 2nd August 2010 a work colleague gave me a adult caterpillar, I new it was a female from its large size, so I decided to place it on my sallow tree at home, well by the time I got home it had made a cocoon in tissue, so I had to place it in a cage. 14th August - two males flew into my shed, one moth was very dark the other light, so I then new the moth had hatched already, I would have missed it otherwise. As the moths cocoon was in tissue. I placed the moth onto a branch, you could see the end of its body pulsating as she was releasing her pheromone within seconds a male had pitched next to the moth and started to mate. It stayed long enough for me to take some pictures. The female started to lay her eggs immediately died on 16th, It lived for only two and a half days, which was quicker than I expected, but from the size of the dead moth, she had laid most of her eggs.