Some will remember that the sallows where I have followed
iris cats for the last few years were cut down last year. I rescued one chrysalis, Trajan, and released him with some sadness where he should have been born wild, in July. I therefore decided to start following white admirals this year, in the hope, ultimately, of recording the complete life-cycle in the wild. To that end, Minnie and I set off this afternoon on a long exploration of the local forests, looking for
camilla cats.
The first we found was far from home:
As soon as he was rumbled, he turned round and headed for the stem, where he obviously felt more camouflaged:
We covered many kilometres of forest tracks, examining hundreds of honeysuckle plants and keeping an eye open for suitable stands of sallow (in the hope of finding a new site for
iris) but found nothing at all until almost home again, when suddenly a tiny, isolated honeysuckle produced three
camilla cats - all tiny and at least one instar younger than the one above:
That was all very good - I can check these daily on my morning walk with Minnie and follow at least one through to pupation or beyond. But better was to come. Passing a very young, isolated sallow, that I would never have expected to attract purple emperors, my eye was caught by the characteristic feeding pattern of
iris. Routinely, I checked the leaf - and to my amazement, there was an
iris cat! It appears to be fourth instar and will henceforth be known as Vespasian:
Almost immediately afterwards I spotted another. This was smaller and appears to be preparing to moult. Voici, donc, Titus (historically, Vespasian's son, but in this case his younger sibling or cousin):
The dark horns suggest he hibernated in second instar - I'm not sure about this. Perhaps one of the experts could given an opinion.
I have no idea if I will be able to follow these through. They are in a worked ride where there seems to have been a campaign against sallow recently. But if they do pupate, I'm pretty sure I'll find the chrysalises as there's basically nowhere else to go ...
Guy
To show what she really looks like I suppose now is as good a time as any to dredge up this old piccie of my departed friends Asha and Kitten Cat with the house goddess:
But these little creatures do seem to be so variable in shade over the winter I'm not sure how much can be read into the head colour immediately after hibernation. The very first iris cat I ever found, Nero, had hibernated in the second instar. I found him as he prepared to shed his skin too:
