Wingspan 70-80 mm.
Fairly well distributed throughout England and Wales, this species has a sombre, camouflaged appearance at rest, but if provoked, flashes the hind wings, which are decorated with intense blue and black 'eyes' on a pinkish background.
This specimen was "Hand Reared" from a chrysalis; it was allowed to go free after being photographed.
Photographs were taken hand-held with available light using a macro lens.
The moth declined to fully open its wings but one of the images does show a glimpse of an "eye": 2013-05-31_4093.jpg. It kept its antenna folded back too, except when I handled it.

All processing from the raw files was done with QIMAGE ULTIMATE with full advantage taken of DEEP FOCUS and TONE TARGETED SHARPENING.
http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage-u/tech-dfs.htm
http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage-u/tech-tts.htm