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