Dave, were you wearing something blue

What flowers do Swallowtails nectar at in the wild ? and what is best in captivity ?. My usual standby is French Marigolds, three to a 8 inch pot they keep going all summer and can be bought in flower very early. ditto Ageratum. this year i have also bought the Scabious sold in Garden Centres. Expen...

My experience is that Devil's bit Scabious needs winter chilling. (Emorsgate seeds supply ). Fresh seed from plants is best sowed straight away even slightly "green" Seed of most Scabious species is short lived and packets from garden centres may be seeds garnered up to 3 years old. I get ...

Discussing this with a friend and he advises not to use Carrot foliage from this years new plants but to buy old carrots and put them in sand and let them sprout. How true I don't know. Just bought some larvae of gorganus the continental subspecies which are transferring from the supplied garden Fen...

Not a butterfly I know but prettier than many ! and dayflying !! Had an explosion of Scarlet Tigers on Comfrey in my garden and they ate the plant to stalks. Are dispersing now and have them on Blackthorn and Pulmonaria ( I think that's its name its the purple plant in flower now with "milk dro...

Have to sort out getting photos on forum first. I have now acquired ringflash and will see how that works also a lead to have my main flashgun at various angles. cheers

Ladybird boxes are also a con including the "ladybird attractant" they sell with them. They are sold to the uninitiated to give to people with an interest in insects or to gardeners.Another triumph for marketing of useless products. could you take them back and ask for your money back as t...

Entomologists are prone to going off the beaten track where you would not be found if anything drastic enough happened to stop you using your mobile phone or you were in a no reception area. I am told that if you leave your mobile phone switched on on you can be located. Is this correct ?

I have tried pohotographing lepidoptera with " metallic" scales but cannot seem to get them looking as they do in real life. I am aware that it is only an optical illusion due to light . I have tried the metallic marks on Vanessid pupae, Queen of Spain Fritillary and Burnished Brass moths ...

Reared some Queen of Spain Frtillaries last year. They would not touch Violets although this is always given as the foodplant. The were supplied on Pansy so I continued with it so I suppose they would only eat what they were started on.

I am pretty sure the source was U.K. It was 25-30 years ago when they were pretty common and you didn't need to import them.

Hear, Hear, I once had to cull 1000 Monarch larvae in order to get some through. ' cus there ain't none in the countryside

Many Umbellifers and also Choysia and Rue !! Marsh Hogs Fennel seeds, its' natural foodplant (from Emorsgate Seeds) seems to require cold treatment, I sowed mine in mid October and its coming up quite thickly 2 inches high in an unheated greenhouse. It is relatively slow growing so thats for next ye...

For breeding cages I find a pot with 3 French Marigold plants in it lasts most of the season and most butterflies like it.

Some years ago I was breeding some Marsh Frit caterpillars in captivity. They were on Teasle in their final instar and looking fairly full grown when I ran out of it. I tried to put them back on their standard foodplant Devil's Bit Scabious but they refused it to the point of death. The other way ro...