www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I didn't notice that someone wrote about the life cycle of Inachis io, so I'll put down mine experience (very short version) from this summer.

Day 1 (20.06.2011)
A female is laying eggs in a form of a large heap on the underside of nettle's (Urtica dioica) leaf. Day 10 (29.06.2011)
Caterpillars have hatched and are feeding in companies. Day 16 (05.07.2011)
They are growing and growing . Day 21 (10.07.2011)
Before they began with each molting process, caterpillars grouped together and stood still about half a day. They were negative phototaxic during that time. Day 25 (14.07.2011)
In the final instar caterpillars are black with white dots and are very greedy . I needed to bring them new nettle four times a day. Every time I took about 10 stalks long 50 cm with fresh leaves and in a few hours they ate them all. Day 31 (20.07.2011)
Caterpillars pupated. There were exactly 325 pupas. 8 of them did't survive or had some problems during pupation. This picture was taken a day or two before butterflies emerged: Day 40 (29.07.2011)
Butterflies emerged and were immediately released to freedom . You can watch a short movie of this here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... UcRviTK9rI[/video]

Brilliant stuff Dean!

Was that 325 pupae from one batch of eggs?

Did you notice an egg laying female and then take the eggs home or already have a mated female to start with?

Best wishes,

Lee

thanks Lee! I'm glad you like it.

Yes, all butterflies were from just one batch of eggs. I even released about 20 caterpillars before they pupated. There was one more bigger batch of eggs which I left and watched their development in nature as a control group. Those "wild" caterpillars had slower growth and on the end of their development maybe just 30% survived.

I noticed the female in my garden .

It's good to see the whole life-cycle featured, as you have done. Of course, the adults appeal most to photographers, like myself, but we need to understand all the stages, if conservation efforts are to be successful. I shall look forward to seeing more of your work in the future.

Mike

Hi biosdr,
I agree with the others - nice sequence. And as Mike points out, for conservation purposes it's far more important to understand caterpillars than butterflies!
Neil

325 pupae ?...........that's dedicated stuff Dean...............and also a lot of caterpillar poo . I salute you.

Looking forward to more reports from Croatia.

Cheers,
Vince

Superb report. You are a most welcome new addition to the UKButterflies portfolio of members.

More of the same whenever you're ready.

Thanks Mike, Neil, Vince and David!

Soon I'll put some stuff about Iphiclides podalirius from the past month.

Vince, it was challenging to maintain terrarium a few days before pupation. I was thinking about releasing most of the caterpillars, but fortunately I didn't. It's a dangerous world out there for them - too many predators. On the end, it was rewarding to see the moment of emerging butterflies and their first flight in a sunny morning . Between, I love your early stages reports... some caterpillars of species you've described I never saw in live.

(Sorry for my bad English if I'm making mistakes in writing.)

Dean

I'm so impressed, that I'm about to "tweet" this thread, and put a link on Facebook.

You're English is just fine!

Cheers,

- Pete

Hi Dean,

Great work and welcome to the forum. I can only agree with the positive comments above.

Kind regards. Mark

Sorry, Pete, but:

Pete Eeles wrote:You're English is just fine!

Aaargh!

Paul

Pawpawsaurus wrote:Sorry, Pete, but:

Pete Eeles wrote:You're English is just fine!

Aaargh!

Paul

Brilliant!

I'm sure Pete did it deliberately!!

Guy

Off coarse I did

Cheers,

- Pete

Excellent work Dean, keep it up,
thanks
Colin

Thanks to all one more time!

In the future if I make some mistakes in writing, please let me know (here or PM). I would be happy to correct them and learn something...

I very much look forward to your future postings.

Seriously - your English is very mpressive and no one is going to correct it! We just found it quite funny to mock Pete!

Guy

padfield wrote:I very much look forward to your future postings.

Seriously - your English is very mpressive and no one is going to correct it! We just found it quite funny to mock Pete!

Correct. Apart from the odd missing article, your English is every bit as good as I'd expect from someone called Dean.