In this month’s Gosforth Nature Reserve Journal, NHSN naturalist, Christopher Wren, shares insights to one of the reserve’s most elusive residents: the Lunar Hornet Moth.
This is one of Gosforth Nature Reserve’s most elusive residents. The Lunar Hornet Moth (Sesia bembeciformis) flies only in July and is only likely to be seen when attracted to a pheromone lure. Its unusual life cycle begins when the adults emerge from pupae in willow trees in early July. After mating the female lays her eggs on willow bark. When they hatch the larvae chew their way into the wood and stay there growing for two years before emerging and the cycle is then complete.
Lunar Hornets are day flying moths and the female attracts a mate by wafting a pheromone. Since 2020 a synthetic pheromone has been commercially available and numbers of reports of adult moths have increased dramatically. All these photos are of male moths attracted to a pheromone lure. The female moth looks very similar but is larger.
The Lunar Hornet Moth looks, sounds and flies like a hornet or giant wasp. It is one of a group of clearwing moths that use Batesian mimicry to deter predators, that is they disguise themselves as something more dangerous and unpalatable to a potential predator.
There is a very similar Hornet Moth (Sesia apiformis) in the south of England, mainly the Midlands and East Anglia, but that has a yellow head and shoulders.
For comparison here are a couple of European Hornets (Vespa crabro), also from Gosforth Nature Reserve but a few years ago. They are brown rather than black but otherwise the moth’s mimicry is pretty impressive.
