It must be getting on for a decade that I have tried and failed to lure Emperor Moth anywhere in VC55 using the EMP lure. And sporadically prior to the lure being available, I had a couple of attempts at rearing through larvae and trying to assemble males - again with no success. I'd seen one female to light years ago, and have successfully lured males in Devon and Somerset. My current lure is now 6yrs old, I got it to replace the first thinking it must be duff. Aside from trying out and about, I've left the lure in the garden many times but it's nigh on impossible to trap them coming to the lure so unless you watch it constantly you could miss something. But there again I had no reason to believe it was around here.
Yesterday afternoon though in glorious sunshine but with a stiff breeze, and it being quite a bit later than I had planned thanks to a chemo pump issue, I headed out to try a few sites in the northern Soar Valley. All sites I'd tried before, and all sites with larval records over the last couple of decades. At last success! Wanlip Meadows was the first site I tried, and I logged x4 to the lure within c10mins before pulling it. I then headed to Cossington Meadows a bit further north, x1 in a couple of mins, and then down to Watermead CP South with another x1 in a couple of mins.
All three sites are nothing like heath/moorland. They share a few characteristics: damp/wet grasslands, copious sallows, willows, bramble, hawthorn and blackthorn and likely plenty of Meadowsweet.
