Painted Lady caterpillar
Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2020 7:30 pm
10 Jan 2020
This afternoon I found a barely half grown Painted Lady caterpillar on Echium pininana in the Boscombe cliff gardens above Honeycombe (sic) chine. I had earlier found a virtually fully grown larva on this food-plant on 3 November. This Echium is one of several gigantic species endemic to the Canary Islands, and goes by the name of Giant Viper-s Bugloss. It is endemic to the island of La Palma. I wonder if a Painted Lady larva has been found alive in the UK in January before now. The winter here has been very mild so far, with a clump of Nasturtiums still untouched by frost in a front garden about half a mile from the sea.
M.
This afternoon I found a barely half grown Painted Lady caterpillar on Echium pininana in the Boscombe cliff gardens above Honeycombe (sic) chine. I had earlier found a virtually fully grown larva on this food-plant on 3 November. This Echium is one of several gigantic species endemic to the Canary Islands, and goes by the name of Giant Viper-s Bugloss. It is endemic to the island of La Palma. I wonder if a Painted Lady larva has been found alive in the UK in January before now. The winter here has been very mild so far, with a clump of Nasturtiums still untouched by frost in a front garden about half a mile from the sea.
M.