Orange Tip Chrysalis

[kevling]

The Orange Tip is my favourite butterfly and as happy as I am to watch the adults at work and play, I have made it my mission this spring to observe this species in it's earlier stages.
My question is whether there are particular plants/locations that the caterpillars favour when pupating. Would this be close their larval food plant?
Any advice appreciated.

Kind Regards
Kevin Ling

[Pete Eeles]

Hi Kevin - the larvae don't travel far, and are perfectly camouflaged on their food plants. However, they will pupate on other surfaces and plants. I believe Vince found a few on one of the other plants in his garden, having fed on either Garlic Mustard or Cuckooflower (I believe!).

Cheers,

- Pete

[Vince Massimo]

Hi Kevin,

Orange-tip larvae tend to pupate on stems or vertical surfaces, usually close to the original food plant. I have seen reports of pupae on fence panels, but most wild sightings are made on the stems of Garlic Mustard or the garden plant Honesty. The other principal food plant (Cuckoo Flower) does not provide a suitable pupation site, either because it is all consumed or the stems are not robust enough to support a pupa.

I have only ever found 2 wild pupae, one on Honesty (Lunaria annua)

Orange Tip pupa on Honesty - Chaldon, Surrey 26-Feb-2012

and the other on Garlic Mustard

Orange Tip pupa on Garlic Mustard - Caterham, Surrey 6-March-2013

There was also an instance where one of my captive larvae escaped and pupated a few feet away on an old fence post
(in the shed).

Orange Tip pupa on fence post - Caterham, Surrey 27-May-2011

If you want to try to observe the whole life cycle in the wild, then the best solution would be to grow clumps of Garlic Mustard and Honesty in a sunny spot of your garden. You will definitely get eggs and larvae, but very few will survive to the pupal stage due to predation by birds and wasps, so you will need an bit of luck as well .

Vince

[kevling]

Pete / Vince,

Thanks for your replies, which were very useful to me.
Vince, I love the photo of the pupa on the fence post.

It was interesting to read about the predation of larvae. I had nurtured some small/large white larvae which I was hoping would pupate in the vicinity. But I haven't found any pupa over the winter. Either they ventured further afield in their last days as larvae, or predation saw them off.

Kind Regards
Kevin

[NickMorgan]

Despite many days of searching I have only ever found one Orange Tip chrysalis. It was on a Garlic Mustard stem about a metre off the ground in a sunny sheltered spot.