A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Aglia tau
Moth Week 2014! The Tau Emperor is a Eurasian, forest dwelling saturniid species which is absent from the UK and the Mediterranean areas. With feathery antennae and more rounded wings without a tip, this is the male of the species.
Clearing in mixed woods, alt. 1300 m ASL.
The females of this species are rather nocturnal, while the the diurnal males can be seen through open woodland on sunny mornings as was the case here. While this may not seem optimum to facilitate mating, receptive female are second to none to attract males, and males more than well equipped to detect them through their feathery antennae. This is a species of open woodlands to alt. of up to 1600 m ASL, with a preference for beech (Fagus sylvatica).
Spotted on Jun 20, 2014
Submitted on Jul 22, 2014
32 Comments (1–25)
Thanks Maria and Leuba!
Congratulations Daniele ! Interesting behaviour.
Congratulations on your SOTD, Daniele. Interesting information
Thanks Satyen and Charlie :-)
Such a glorious Moth ..congrats :) enjoyed reading the notes.
Congrats Daniele!
Thanks Joshua and António!
Beautiful capture Daniéle,perfect series,congrats on the very well deserved double honor SOTD and also MOM (Moth of the Month) :-)
Very nice, congrats.
Thanks everyone!
Congratulations! Great pics!
Congrats Daniele! Awesome shots!
Congrats Daniele!!!Nice!!
Congrats Daniele. Wau on the Tau!!! Really Wow,
Congratulations, Daniele. This is a wonderful spotting :-)
Congratulations, Daniele! Beautiful moth!
Thanks for the honor Yasser, and thank you so much for your kind words! I too I am looking forwards to the years to come :-) I hope everyone who stops here will take a little time to read into the fascinating biology of this moth: check the notes and the exchanges in the comments :-) And thanks Leana and Mark!
With a name like that maybe it should be from China? Congratulations.
Congratulations Daniele on this SOTD!
Daniele, this gorgeous moth is not only our Spotting of the Day, but also our Moth of the Month! :) This is a wonderful series with great detail and reminds us of the fun we had this past Moth Week. I can't wait for next year! As always, thank you so much for all that you do for the PN community. You've been a core part of our backbone for many years now and we owe you so much.
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/projectnoah/pho...
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/projectnoah/status/5...
8-/
Emperor, Mark :-)
Beautiful. Tau emerald ?! :) So much for common names.
Thanks J! It was a lucky spot, rising sun in a clearing first thing in the morning. It looked like it had recently emerged. I had only ever seen the caterpillar before. It was so nice I ran after my husband to get him back to show him :-) Did you read the note about the male/female differences in day/night flight time? Fascinating!
Daniele, this is an absolutely marvelous series of a gorgeous moth! And how spectacular to see it in such lovely sunlight!