Padfield

[Wurzel]

Crickey Guy you're pampering that cat no wonder he's happy - his new home is bigger than my garden/courtyard Brilliant shot of the Brown Argus from before - I love it when the under wing shows through the topside.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Hi Pauline. I had the same experience with orange tips last year. One by one they fell to various things, and although I think one might have survived I never found where he pupated. According to LCoBIB (aka, the Gospel according to Pete), they wander far and wide looking for the right place. The problem in gardens is that where they think is perfect may be just where a gardener chooses to do some 'tidying up' later in the year or in the spring. The good news is that a female orange tip might lay some 200 eggs or more, of which only two on average - one male and one female - need to survive to reproductive adulthood to maintain the population. The remaining 198+ are for the birds and spiders and all the other creatures that need to feed.

Hi Wurzel. Yes - big cage! To be precise, 60cm x 60 cm x 90 cm, and £32 on e-bay. I'd rather have bought something less plasticky and better quality, but it was a bit of a last-minute decision and I needed it fast!

Assuming Śvetaketu pupates, I'll be asking advice on what to do with him until next April! Jack, I think, has a lot of experience (and success) with orange tips and fridges, so that is an option. But how and when and what to do if he pupates on the netting instead of a plant I am keen to learn.

Pauline's diary reminded me I watched female green hairstreaks apparently searching for somewhere to lay the other day too. They were crawling over bramble flowers. I couldn't find any eggs but will return when the sun comes back and perhaps spend a little more time there. I don't know if she is feeding or testing the flower in this picture:



This is a different one, who flew off before I could get the shot. You can see her abdomen is chock full of eggs:



On the other hand, I think this one is a male, from a brief side view I had of the abdomen, and he is behaving in the same way:


(He does have a proboscis and was also probing the bramble flower with it - it is just bizarrely invisible in this picture).

Guy

[kevling]

Hi Guy,

Love the lengths you are going to for your Orange Tip larva. We had a couple make it to final instead last year and made similar provisions to protect them. They both pupated on hardwood stems and we just left them alone for 10 months. One of them emerged as a male the other didn’t hatch.

Regards Kev

[Padfield]

Thanks Kev. I hope Śvetaketu does go for one of the sturdier branches I've stuck in with him - it will make life easier. For the time being, he is still munching away, now on one of the other plants, which survived the potting a little better, I think, so probably tastes fresher.



Guy

[Padfield]

Yesterday, Śvetaketu moved from his garlic mustard plant onto a branch of a dry, woody stem I had deliberately left in contact with it. Already last night he seemed to be silking this up at his head and tail ends and he spent most of today completing this task before spinning a girdle around his midriff. By 17h30 he was finished:



His embryonic wings are clearly visible in this shot. Here is a closer crop:



Vince tells me they will become less visible as the area swells in final preparation for pupation. I imagine this will take place tonight or tomorrow morning - very exciting! Despite having found many pupae in the wild, from Queen of Spain fritillary to purple emperor (I've found 5 purple emperor pupae), I've never seen an orange tip pupa!

Guy

[millerd]

Extraordinary shots, Guy. I had no idea the butterfly's anatomical structures were so readily visible while the insect is still (just!) in its larval state.

Cheers,

Dave

[bugboy]

It doesn't matter how much I understand the mechanics of metamorphosis, it will never cease to amaze me!

[Wurzel]

Fantastic images Guy - I would never have expected to be able to see embryonic wings - complete with veins in a caterpillar, I'd always thought that they change occurred only when they were in the chysalis Brilliant!

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Thank you Dave, Buggy and Wurzel. I think the more you understand about nature, the more incomprehensibly wonderful it becomes. And all these exquisite things go on daily, mundanely, out of sight and without fanfare ... It is truly humbling.

Śvetaketu was still a caterpillar this morning. As Vince predicted, the region of the wing buds has swollen and they have changed in appearance but not yet glossed over and become obscured. It is a cool, wet day, so things might move slowly - but they are moving!



Guy

[Goldie M]

It's fascinating following your shots Guy Goldie

[Padfield]

Thanks Goldie!

A close-up of those growing wing-buds this afternoon:



Vince tells me it can be up to 38 hours from silking up to finally shedding the larval skin. Inside that skin, of course, he is already well on the way to being a pupa, and his shape is changing hourly.

Guy

[Padfield]

After a cold, wet night, Śvetaketu woke up this morning a caterpillar still - on the outside, at least:



He soon dried out, but had still to make the grade when I took this photo in the afternoon:



He still hasn't gone the distance as I go to bed.

The nettle patch is still covered in ladybird pupae - 7-spot mostly, but some harlequin. There are also plenty of adult ladybirds now.

Most of the 7-spots look like this:



Some are almost black, like this ...



... or this ...



... and some have greatly diminished spotting, like this:





I think those are all 7-spots, but I'm not an expert.

This (awful) picture is of a harlequin - quite different:



Guy

[Padfield]

Now into a third day of being fully spun-up, Śvetaketu is still looking healthy and making all the right changes. Notice the cataract over the forewing buds and the split in the skin at the tail end, exposing the pupal stem:





Just yesterday, the tail end looked like this:



Guy

[Vince Massimo]

It's getting very close now, Guy. The prolegs have been absorbed and the larva has started to sag a little. Things are taking a bit longer than I was expecting due to the cooler conditions lately, but all the signs are there.

Vince

[Padfield]

Thanks Vince. Yes - it has been very cold. And as most of the changes are basically chemistry, they happened more slowly.

I had to go into town and got stuck in a queue to get into Boots. By the time I returned (about 12h15), Śvetaketu had begun stripping off (wearing his eyes like a bra ...):



I got this hand-held video of him shaking off his skin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lBN2OdAdwY[/video]

(URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lBN2OdAdwY if the embedded video doesn't work)

When he was clear, he continued moving, pumping fluids around, I imagine, to twist himself hydraulically into his final form.



I spotted a potential parasite on him at one point so blew it off. I have no idea if it was a threat but preferred not to find out the hard way. Does anyone know what the creature is?







By 13h30 he looked a proper, orange-tip-pupa shape:



Guy

[kevling]

Guy,

What a fantastic diary this week with your Orange Tip pupation. I have never heard about or seen the growing wing buds before. really enjoyed your photographs.
I have one at home that has started the process overnight, so will take a closer look. This will be my second one going to pupation this week.

Kind Regards
Kev

[bugboy]

That's a fascinating little creature crawling on the pupae, if anything it looks like some sort of marine isopod or crustacean, which obviously it can't be. To be honest I couldn't even hazard a guess as to what insect order it belongs to! Perhaps a young larvae of something?

[David M]

Amazing sequence, Guy, particularly considering you have images ranging from the newly hatched larva to the pupa.

Hopefully he/she will be safe over winter in that protective cage and will emerge next spring.

[Padfield]

Thanks Kev. It seems we've been going through the same things recently!

I was confident you would know what that insect was, Buggy - you disappoint me! I uploaded a photo to the RES insect ID page and received a swift reply saying it was a thrips nymph - in other words, a thunderbug to be - and no threat to the pupa.

Nothing in nature is safe, David, but I'll look after him to the best of my ability!

There have been subtle colour changes since he pupated. This was him this morning:



Guy

[bugboy]

Thanks Kev. It seems we've been going through the same things recently!

I was confident you would know what that insect was, Buggy - you disappoint me! I uploaded a photo to the RES insect ID page and received a swift reply saying it was a thrips nymph - in other words, a thunderbug to be - and no threat to the pupa.

I hang my head in shame.... I was kinda right though with my admittedly vague stab in the dark, larvae is close enough to nymph Every day's a school day