Beginning a couple of days ago, orange tip eggs laid in my garden on 21st April have been losing their orange colour and showing the caterpillars within. These two pictures show the same egg, yesterday:
And this is a different one:
Today was very cold, with alternating hail, rain, cloud and brilliant (but still cold) sunshine. I checked these eggs during the day - no change. Then in the evening, on my last check, I found both had hatched. The first one was guzzling his egg:
Not very brilliant, but the best I could do, as I had to manipulate the plant to get the evening sun on it and a wind was blowing.
The other egg seemed at first to be empty but intact and I thought it had failed. But then I spotted the tiny person on the other side of the pedicel:
There was an ant on nearby seedpods and I wonder if this caterpillar had felt threatened while feeding and moved on before finishing his meal.
Other orange tip eggs in my garden are still orange.
Guy