Quite a number of them seemed not to have hatched. There were also some that had hatched but I never found the larvae. I had netting over the eggs and had a good search when I took it off. It's possible I missed some and they did make it to pupation. Not a veri scientific study I am afraid.

The other two have hatched and flown off. So of the 30 eggs I found in my plum trees 3 have made it to adulthood, 10% success rate. Don't know if that is a good rate. Hopefully they will be successful breeding and I'll find more eggs laid in my trees later this year.

Cheers

Chris

Well, the first of my Brown Hairstreaks has hatched - it's beautiful. Unfortunately I missed the actual hatching, but when I let it go it obligingly sat on a leave in my garden to allow me to take some photos. Two more to go!

And now they have pupated.
Cheers

Chris

Some of them have turned purple and have settled down to pupate.

Ok, bit excited again... Did a search of my netted branches and have found five lovely lime green larvae! Quite a number of the eggs hadn't hatched, but of those that had I mostly found the larva. I've only checked about 2/3rds of the nets so far but it seems the ones on the east facing tree seem to...

Just to say, it looks like some of the eggs have hatched. Really hard to tell with my 7x magnifying glass but I'm pretty sure I can see dark holes in the top of some eggs. Not all yet, some are still intact. I tried to see the tiny caterpillar but no luck. I gather they bury themselves in the buds a...

Yes, I gather it's spiders and the like that eat the eggs, and birds that eat the caterpillars. It's ironic that we like to encourage birds into the garden and have a feeder sticking out of one of the plum trees that attracts Blue and Great Tits, which of course sit in the tree before going on the f...

As an update to this post... We recently carefully pruned our plum trees, and I did a more studious count and have found a total of 31 eggs on our two plum trees. I noticed about 3 or 4 eggs I had marked in December had gone, presumably predated. I've also bought some tubular netting from Insectopia...

Thanks for all your replies. I've found some places that sell sleeves and also netting on a roll. I'd like to sleeve as many as possible so I think I might buy some netting and make up some sleeves myself. I'd like to bring them in and rear them through, mainly to protect them but also to see them h...

Well, I checked the other plum tree we have in our garden today and found another 10 eggs! In a couple of cases two were laid together. That female was really busy back in July. Yes, I was wondering about putting some netting or something over them to protect them from predators both at egg and larv...

I am a bit excited. I've checked my plum tree that I saw a Brown Hairstreak in this summer, and have found 6 eggs! Beautiful white 'urchin-shaped', nestling in the fork of branches. They are laid at heights of 1.3 mtrs to 2 mtrs from the ground on the east facing side of the tree. There may be more ...

Went to Aston Rowant in Oxfordshire yesterday, and despite some showers and clouds there were loads of Chalkhill Blues flying about, they were all around me as I walked along - could be a good year for them. Saw a number of females crawling around the undergrowth presumably looking for places to lay...

Hi Dave,

Yes interesting. Sounds like they are doing pretty well in this area.

Cheers

Chris

Thanks Bugboy, yes that work, although it would rather block the view out of our conservatory. But if I get desperate enough...

Cheers

Chris

Hi Dave, Thanks for the reply. Yes I was very pleased, and surprised, to see it. I had the decision of staying and admiring it or running inside to get a camera and hoping it would still be there. I chose the second unfortunately. However I shall keep a look out and will check the prunus trees in wi...

This is a picture I did manage to get of a female Brown Hairstreak that was in my garden two years ago in September.

I had a female Brown Hairstreak in my garden in Oxford today. It was settled on some long grass and opened it wings so I could see the orange markings on the forewings, and saw the white lines and oranges on the underside. I rushed inside to get my camarea but of course it had gone when I came out. ...

I've searched old forum posts and seen others complaining about butterflies coming into their conservatories. I have a south facing conservatory and whenever I slide open the doors on a sunny day I get one or more butterflies coming in. I'm forever hoying them out with a net or plastic jug and piece...

The white actually looks like silk spun by the caterpillar on which it moults on. It grips the silk with its old feet and uses it as an anchor point to crawl out in its new skin :) Interesting, yes I guess caterpillars need something to hold their old skin/feet firm while they crawl out of it. Ther...