Day 1 (20.06.2011)
A female is laying eggs in a form of a large heap on the underside of nettle's (Urtica dioica) leaf.
Caterpillars have hatched and are feeding in companies.
They are growing and growing
.
Before they began with each molting process, caterpillars grouped together and stood still about half a day. They were negative phototaxic during that time.
In the final instar caterpillars are black with white dots and are very greedy
. I needed to bring them new nettle four times a day. Every time I took about 10 stalks long 50 cm with fresh leaves and in a few hours they ate them all.
Caterpillars pupated. There were exactly 325 pupas. 8 of them did't survive or had some problems during pupation.
Butterflies emerged and were immediately released to freedom
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... UcRviTK9rI[/video]
. Between, I love your early stages reports... some caterpillars of species you've described I never saw in live.
