Hatched purple hairstreak egg

[Padfield]

Today I checked a purple hairstreak egg that hangs over a path I regularly walk in the Rhône Valley. I think it hatched while I was away!

This is the egg on 19th March:



This is it today:



The bud has burst and elongated but it is definitely the same one! Here is a close-up of the egg, showing where the larva emerged through the micropyle. There is not a hole in the side - that is just the sun being cast through the top hole:



I examined the bud for signs of a caterpillar or of a hole where it bored in, but I couldn't find anything. I imagine (hope) the bud is growing so fast its new scales covered up the hole the caterpillar made within a day or so of it emerging. If so, then there is a fat little purple hairstreak larva guzzling greenery inside that bud. Alternatively, something got it... But there were no signs of beak marks on the bud either, where a tit might have gone for the tiny grub.

Guy

PS - thirty species of butterfly flying in the Rhône Valley today.

[Pete Eeles]

I'd be 99% sure the larva is in the bud! The 2 eggs I have at home both hatched in the last week and the larvae have both buried themselves deep within their buds. I caught sight of one of them and (as well as based on past experience) are absolutely tiny and could easily slip themselves between expanding leaves. As soon as they emerge on the outside of the bud, in an instar or two, I'll be putting them back on the tree they came from.

Of the eggs I've tagged "in the wild", 5 have also hatched, one has disappeared altogether, and one is yet to emerge.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Padfield]

Thanks Pete, that's good to know.

When I last checked the eggs up here in the mountain (as opposed to the Valley, which is always several weeks ahead), on Monday, they were unhatched and the buds were tight. The brown hairstreak eggs up here were also intact. I didn't have time to check them in the Valley today.



Guy