People are forever baiting for Emperors with bananas, despite the paucity of records of the butterfly actually visiting banana baits - and on the rare occasions that Emperors do visit bananas, it seems to be more for the additives (sugar, molasses, rum, water, shrimp paste, human xxxxx, etc.) than the actual banana.
I know of only two records of Apatura iris visiting pure bananas in Brexit Britain, both involving females.
Neil Hulme is even more scathing about the practice than me, and habitually removes banana baits.
Nonetheless, here's a male feeding on a very dry banana skin beneath Patrick's Tree (a classic oak sap 'feeder tree') at Knepp, photoed by David Land on July 5th (with thanks to David for the photo) -
The male had been feeding on oak sap in the tree above, but then descended to the track in search of moisture - but the track was very dry, and devoid of cowpats. Hence the brief banana visitation.
Please note that Emperors have long stopped descending to the tracks to feed for the year, though you might just find a dying male down. They only do it during the first few (3-4 days) of their lives.
Onward!
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