www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Sitting in my garden last evening, when I heard a commotion coming from my Buddhelia bush just behind me. A painted lady butterfly was thrashing around amoungst the leaves and I assumed it had got tangled in a spiders web. I went to investigate and discovered it had been "nailed" by a large hornet, which was holding onto a leaf with back legs and the butterfly with the others. The hornet held on for maybe a minute, before the butterfly got away. I think the hornet was trying to sting the "biggest" part of the butterfly and therefore only getting the wing membranes. It did however seem to have chewed quite a chunk out of both bottom wings and small sections were drifting slowly down to the ground. The butterfly was a bit of a mess, but could still fly.
Amazingly, the hornet returned a few minutes later with one of its mates and they both made regular sortees into the massed ranks of painted ladies, red admirals and Silver Y's. I tried to video it with my digital camera, but it was all too fast. After about half a dozen return visits, the hornets gave up for the day. Presumably they were already preparing for the following day's mission! Absolutely AMAZING sight though