The end of my quarantine was dominated by holly blue larvae, which I posted on a separate thread. The last few days - of freedom - have been more about Pierid early stages. Two days ago, I watched a female small white laying on feral crucifers of some species along the river (lots of arable land nearby):
(the strange, grey markings are the shadows of flowers)
She was not at all careful about where she laid - flower, leaf, upperside, underside - and spent little more than a second on each egg:
There were plenty of older, yellow eggs on the leaves:
Today, while repairing our beanpole structure after the storms and rains last night, I spotted a female green-veined white laying in a weedy patch near the tomatoes. As soon as I could, I had a look to see her work and found plenty of eggs on what I think is shepherd's purse, but all the plants were very young:
As this patch will probably be reworked in the next few weeks, I thought I'd repot a few plants with eggs on and keep them safe:
There are four plants and five eggs there - the two plants in the right pot came out of the ground together so I kept them together.
According to Pete's book, the eggs should hatch in just a few days. If the plants thrive, I'll keep the whole lot in a cage and provide more plants as necessary. If not, I know where the eggs came from so will return them to the wild.
Guy
I thought I had one small white among them, but none of the eggs have gone really yellow so maybe not. None have hatched either, doubtless held back by the recent very cold weather.
