Small Tortoiseshell ova

[Tony Moore]

Just back from a walk in a 'nettley' place, where I hoped to find a laying ST. There were plenty about and I watched one female, which rejected the advances of a couple of males and crawled about on a nice sunny bunch of nettles. After about 45 mins, she had shown no sign of egg laying and eventually flew off. It seemed worth checking the area where she had been and bingo! The first nettle that I looked at had a large clump of eggs. They appeared to be the result of the activities of more than one female as they were at different stages of development ( exactly as described by Jeremy Thomas in his quite brilliant book..).
They proved dratted difficult to photograph adequately - the shot below was the best that I could manage.

Tony M.