Butterfly Jungles Breeding Enclosure

[butterflyjungles]

Butterfly Jungles Breeding Enclosure
Weird and Wonderful Experiences

It s been a whirlwind Year for us and our Breeding Enclosure has been an incredible success.Not only did we release around 500 UK Species at Hampton Court Flower Show in our award winning Show Garden to highlight the decline of Butterflies Worldwide,we also released a further 300 in our first Butterfly Jungles Sanctuary at Ferry Point in London.The Butterflies in question were a mixture of very large healthy Peacocks,Comma s Red Admirals Small Tortoiseshells.Painted Ladies were also released at Hampton Court.

The breeding of these Species produced some odd activity from some of the Caterpillars and indeed the Adults regarding foodplants and these probably havent been recorded elsewhere.Firstly our Painted Ladies chose Red Clover and Buddleja to lay on aswell as the Meadow Thistle and Nettles that are usually chosen.The caterpillars reared up perfectly and in fact the resulting Butterflies were actually larger than their Nettle and Thistle feeding counterparts.

Next the Commas favoured Hazel to Nettles and these too seemed to produce more robust Adults but definately the strangest were the Peacocks as some wandered off their Nettles and chose to eat Bedding Scarlet Verbenas which surely has to be a first!Again these produced perfect healthy Butterflies and got me thinking that maybe some Species are more adaptable than we think when it comes to foodplants.There could indeed be thousands of cases like these occuring in the Wild or even our back Gardens which simply go unnoticed.I will definately be keeping a closer eye on the Garden plants and Wildflowers being eaten next Year.

Let me know if you have had any similar experiences,Would love to hear them.

Paul Allen

[David M]

Painted Ladies laid eggs on buddleia!! I've certainly never heard of that.

[butterflyjungles]

Yes David Very bizarre!!!

The caterpillars chomped away quite happily and the resulting butterflies were probably the biggest wingspan and more robust than i've ever seen in my 28 years of breeding!!

[millerd]

Amazing! Though Painted Lady caterpillars obviously eat the strange green sludge supplied in those butterfly breeding kits for children, and goodness knows what that's made of...

Dave

[David M]

True. Maybe, given that this species is particularly opportunistic, they have a wider range of acceptable foodplants than most others.

Still, buddleia remains a surprising find.

[hilary]

People in the UK have over the years studied our Butterflie's behaviour more closely than anywhere else in the world probably, so it does make me wonder if in other countries they also have food plants not native to the UK. But Commas on Hazel does seem puzzling! Shrubs like Hazel and Buddlia do seem a safer bet in the are not subject to summer cutting. The photo I hope I have managed to attach is an unknown caterpilar munching on peony leaves and buds

P1030966 copy.jpg (63.58 KiB) Viewed 1309 times

[Neil Hulme]

Comma food-plants include nettle, hop, elm, hazel, black currant, gooseberry and sallow. Other plants are probably used occasionally and a BC Sussex member found a Comma egg on blackthorn a couple of years back.
Neil

[hilary]

I didn't know about the Hazel, Elm or Sallow! With all that choice I wonder they are not the most common butterfly.

[Neil Hulme]

Hi Hilary,
Perhaps surprisingly, there is no direct relationship between the abundance of a species and either the diversity or abundance of its larval food-plants. The butterfly with the widest choice of caterpillar fodder is the Green Hairstreak, which is rather localised and seldom common. Species such as the Wall, which feeds on a wide variety of very common grasses, is sadly in serious decline. A female Duke of Burgundy may come across a south facing downland meadow containing tens of thousands of cowslips, but none might be suitable for her to lay eggs on. Butterflies are such fickle creatures that a whole host of other factors will ultimately determine their population size.
BWs, Neil

[butterflyjungles]

Really interesting comments,Keep them coming! I've seen Comma Caterpillars on various other plants and know that Hazel was indeed one.The surprising part was the sheer size of the pupae and resulting butterflies compared to those eating the Nettles.Much larger and robust in both sexes.I've never noticed that before.

Funnily enough I found the Comma to be far more common this year than other nymphalids except the influx of Red Admirals in September where they stole the crown for a bit.Not so sure its foodplant related though look at what happened to our long gone Black Veined White which hosted several common native Hedging Plants and Fruit Trees and should in theory have been a common species.

Painted Ladies are indeed much more diverse with foodplants especially on the continent.Many Mallows,Hollyhocks and indeed the garden Lavateras have all been recorded as foodplants too but I am surprised by Red Clover and Buddleja and again for some odd reason the resulting butterflies were far larger.Good to see Buddleja's serving a dual purpose.

I still cant get over the Peacock caterpillars eating bedding Verbenas either.Got to say they almost stripped them bare! They definately thrived on the leaves!

We never stop learning and it wouldn't surprise me if more foodplants for our UK species start popping up.

Butterflies never cease to amaze and delight us here at Butterfly Jungles ;0)

[Simon-in-Kent]

I had some continental Swallowtails once and they laid on lady's bedstraw.
I've seen 2nd brood Holly Blues lay on hop flowers in the garden. Peacocks also do well on hop, which is less painful for the breeder!