Some of you may recall my finding an Elephant Hawk Larva on some Hairy Willow Herb in my garden last summer. It was near fully grown and soon after, I found it wandering on my patio no doubt looking for somewhere suitable to safely pupate and spend the winter. I put it in a container where it could ...

By the way, that Sussex locality was a wonderland for the PEs back in the day. Lots of lovely mature Oaks interspersed within the clearings with seedling Douglas Firs planted. Some thirty five years later I visited the same locality. What a difference! Massive mature conifers and most unsuitable for...

So many diligent birds it's a wonder any larvae manage to escape their predatory attentions and produce adult insects next summer. Nature.. red in tooth and wossname ... :) I agree, the odds seem mercilessly stacked against them! But in the end, so long as fecundity = mortality all is well. When on...

When I used to regularly breed insects, I once put out from my green house in midwinter a 1.5 Metre high potted Aspen containing a dozen Limenitis populi hibernacula. Did that as I do with many hibernating larvae, including various Apaturinae species. That to take advantage of some light winter rain...

Both White Admirals and Hungarian Gliders in Captivity do wander off their foodplant and seek a covert place to pupate elsewhere. I have often observed Insectivorous Birds seek and search very diligently in the greenery for any larvae and pupae to feed their young. So larvae wise to leave the greene...

Superbly interesting pictures Guy.

What was the main attractant? Hard to tell but in one or two images, looks like animal excrement.

If the day was very hot then looks like human sweat provided some sustenance in the dry habitat. Do the females feed in this same way ?

I'm off to try for another of your favourites today, CC - poplar admiral. It's always a gamble with this species but by coincidence a couple of friends visited my chosen site yesterday and saw two. Whatever happens, if the sun shines we'll see butterflies. Guy Yes, fine butterfly and one of my Euro...

Glow worms. :).. I see those in the Cotswold Grasslands a few miles from my home. I've also seen them deep in the Forest of Dean. Theory being they were imported there a long time ago along with the large quantities of ballast for the various railway tracks which one time serviced many parts of the ...

Matsukaze and downland boy.

Two good spots of the small earlier stages there. Well done.

I was working in the garden most of today with various tasks including mowing the lawn. I set up a table and chair and got on with soldering an old Battery Charger which I bought back in the 1960s. It has given good service since then but the slide switch has broken up partly making "iffy"...

A superb image JasonB.

A couple of hours at Hutchinsons Bank today revealed a dozen or so Peacocks, several Small Tortoiseshell, a couple of Orange Tips, 2 Commas, a few Brimstones and some Speckled Wood. Popped over to Frith Wood when it clouded over to see what that was like and found a White Admiral larvae :D Well don...

First positively ID-ed Male Orange Tip through my garden today. May have been the second. One I saw a few days ago was almost certainly a male but blinded by sun so not sure. Quite warm in Gloucestershire today. One of those fine spring days when Glos has to be one of the best places on the planet t...

Good picture Guy. Bit untidy but no doubt bashed about a bit by the long exposure to winter weather. The ones I've seen are usually neater and smaller. Always anchored securely by silk to the main stem. In the late summer-autumn, it is interesting to see how these and the Poplar Admiral larvae prepa...

2015-04-06 Various Easter Monday 6th April 2015. 003.JPG 2015-04-06 Various Easter Monday 6th April 2015. 001.JPG This has to be the best showing of late winter early spring for post hibernation Butterflies I can ever remember. Been much warmer the past two days, the temperature reading on my car's...

Hi Guy, If any of those Celtis ( Nettle Trees ) produce viable seeds at some stage later, I could use a few to germinate. It's over thirty years since I reared any Celtis feeders and would like to do so again. The last Celtis feeders I reared was this monster ~ Sasakia funebris :~ http://img.photobu...

Some were beautifully fresh, others .......... not so :roll: https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8751/16864301191_53f39335ee.jpg Despite that tatty exterior, as long as the insect is otherwise fit and healthy, it can mate and breed just as well as the near perfect looking individuals. Thus keeping up th...

More good to see stuff Guy. Helicopters. That reminds me, last time I was high up on the slopes above Zermatt over thirty years ago, saw a cooker/oven being delivered to a near inaccessible Chalet perched on a mountainside. I wonder what the delivery charge for that would be.. :)... It's about a ten...

How about that. Whilst preparing the family meal ( peeling some spuds ) I was aware of some fluttering outside the kitchen window as I worked. Looked up just in time to secure a quick image before it was away flying strongly in the beautiful winter sunshine. Good to see and a reminder that Spring ca...

One of the easiest butterflies to breed too. As long as you have a good Arbutus unedo . Until I destroyed it to make way for a double garage a dozen years ago, my Strawberry Tree bought as a single 30cm high seedling in 1972 was the size of a small bus! Reared dozens of this fine insect in sleeves o...