Well, last year was not a success as far as butterflies was concerned. I bought caterpillars and pupae, hoping to raise them for release. My suspicion that they were constantly inbred was, I think, reinforced by the fact that over half of the pupae hatched with deformities and did not survive. The r...

Question: Working on the assumption that bought caterpillars are going to be inbred, if I buy several lots of caterpillars, i.e. Small Tortoiseshell, from different suppliers in different parts of the country, raise each lot to butterflies separately, split the males from the females and swap them r...

Hi Guy: Now you're asking! This would have been about 35 years ago, and I believe I found the butterfly in October. I was living in Caversfield, Oxon, at the time and had no central heating, just a gas fire, so the window area where the butterfly roosted would have been quite cool. As I recall, ther...

Hi Pete: Thanks for your advice. I have actually built a fairly large butterfly house completely enclosed in fine netting, and will put all the potted nettles inside. Probably when I get the larvae they will be very small, so I'll keep them indoors on cut nettle until they get big enough to go outsi...

Knowing my interest in wildlife and conservation, my daughter bought me a butterfly cage which came with a voucher for caterpillars. I duly sent off the voucher and received a small pot containing five Painted Lady caterpillars complete with food, from a company called Insect Lore. Four butterflies ...