Larvae on Blackthorn in Italy!

[Pete Eeles]

Hi all - back from a superb week in northern Italy near Sarnano. Full report to follow in due course, but the highlights were:

- Waking up to see High Brown Fritillary, Wall, Swallowtail, Essex Skipper, Small Tortoiseshell, Queen of Spain Fritillary, Hummingbird Hawkmoth and Clouded Yellow nectaring on the lavendar in the garden (which regularly had a count in excess of 300 butterflies each morning!!!)
- Hundreds of Large Tortoiseshell in the Sibillini mountains
- Black-veined Whites in abundance
- Mazarine Blue everywhere
- Seeing my first Large Chequered Skippers!
- Good numbers of Small Tortoiseshell everywhere (something I miss)
- Seeing a Golden Eagle flying above our heads in the mountains
- Excellent scenery
- Stunning wild flowers
- Great company!
- Finding larvae (and pupae) everywhere we went

One critter that foxed us is the one shown below (followed by some random pics) - gregarious groups of black caterpillar on young blackthorn bushes up in the mountains. Any ideas anyone? Looks like a nymphalid, but what do I know?

Cheers,

- Pete

Unknown larvae.jpg (57.76 KiB) Viewed 1412 times

black-veined whites.jpg (67.99 KiB) Viewed 1412 times

black-veined white.jpg (54.69 KiB) Viewed 1411 times

high brown fritillary.jpg (69.52 KiB) Viewed 1411 times

swallowtail.jpg (56.88 KiB) Viewed 1411 times

large chequered skipper.jpg (42.58 KiB) Viewed 1411 times

queen of spain fritillary.jpg (71.11 KiB) Viewed 1411 times

purple-edged copper.jpg (47.37 KiB) Viewed 1411 times

broad-bordered bee hawkmoth.jpg (42.45 KiB) Viewed 1412 times

zygaenids.jpg (66.6 KiB) Viewed 1411 times

blue bee.jpg (66.41 KiB) Viewed 1411 times

garden.jpg (207.15 KiB) Viewed 1410 times

poppies.jpg (152.68 KiB) Viewed 1408 times

monti sibillini.jpg (74.43 KiB) Viewed 1408 times

castelliano.jpg (89.07 KiB) Viewed 1407 times

[Susie]

Fabulous fabulous photographs! Oh it makes my heart glad to see so many butterflies on the lavender.

[Charles Nicol]

Mamma mia !!

lovely photos Pete

Carlo

[Padfield]

Glad you got your large chequered skippers, Pete! Isn't that just the best butterfly? They fly as if they were on elastic strings held by a puppet-master.

Look forward to the full report.

Guy

[Matsukaze]

The blue bee could be Xylocopa violacea which is increasingly turning up along the south coast of England and could be a colonist in the next few years. They are pretty spectacular insects!

[Padfield]

By the way - unless I'm mistaken that is a scarce copper (virgaureae) rather than purple-edged (hippothoe)! Isn't it annoying when I do that!

Guy

EDIT - I'm beginning to regret that post now! I've never seen eurydame without a cell spot in the forewing or with those black spots on the hindwing, but I've now found web pictures with both those characters. So assuming you saw the underside, apologies, Pete!!

[Pete Eeles]

Yeah - here's one with the underside. According to Lafranchis, this is the "high altitude" form of the species

Still wondering what those darn larvae are though

Cheers,

- Pete

IMG_1631.jpg (63.25 KiB) Viewed 1239 times

[Padfield]

Amazing! I think that means I've never seen real eurydame here in Swwitzerland, even though we get some very dark females.

Guy

PS - The larvae baffle me, too. I've been through my Swiss book, which has photographs of the larvae of all species, and nothing that might feed on blackthorn looks like that.

[Mikhail]

Pete
It's a bit late, but I have just found your photo of mystery larvae on blackthorn. I think they may be young larvae of Saturnia pavoniella, a close relative of our Emperor moth. Have a look at http://www.leps.it.

Misha

[Pete Eeles]

Hi Misha,

You are absolutely spot on. I should have replied myself to the question - but I received confirmation a while back that this is what these larvae were.

Thanks for the response!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Denise]

Oh wow Pete.
I've only just spotted this thread, I must have missed it after my hols last year. What stunning photo's.
Only 8 weeks till i'm off to mainland Europe butterflying for the first time. Can't wait!
Denise

[Pete Eeles]

If your trip is anything like my first dedicated trip abroad, you're going to be absolutely blown away by the experience. Which is why I do this every year now!

Look forward to seeing your pics/report, Denise!

Cheers,

- Pete