www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Knowing my interest in wildlife and conservation, my daughter bought me a butterfly cage which came with a voucher for caterpillars. I duly sent off the voucher and received a small pot containing five Painted Lady caterpillars complete with food, from a company called Insect Lore. Four butterflies survived, (the fifth did not survive pupation) and will be released once the weather improves. However, I suspect there may have been a lot of inbreeding involved, as they don’t seem as healthy as I would have expected, despite being given the best of care.

I have ordered 40 Small Tortoiseshell larvae from another company, since these are very scarce now in the South East. Although I have several containers of potted nettles growing for them, I thought I would contact Insect Lore to see if I could buy the concentrated food. They suggested that I buy a voucher for more caterpillars which would come complete with food. When I pointed out that the food would only be sufficient for the caterpillars they provided (probably Painted Lady) they appeared to have no further suggestions. So, far from being about conservation, it seems this company at least are only concerned with making as much money as possible!

Although I live in a very urbanised area, where most gardens consist of concrete and/or decking, I have turned both my gardens into wildlife areas, concentrating on insect-friendly plants, and providing insect habitats and shelters. My garden is usually full of birds, and I have a thriving colony of woodmice. Unfortunately, the local cats seem to find this very attractive, so the water pistol is always handy! The most common butterflies in my garden seem to be Peacocks and Commas, although for the past few summers I have had visits from Elephant and Hummingbird hawk moths, and a Hornet Hoverfly even took up residence

Hi magwitch,

Different species use different larval foodplants, and so the concentrated mix for Painted Lady (which feed on Thistles in the wild) is unlikely to be suitable for Small Tortoiseshell (which feed on Nettle). You're much better off using your potted nettles, and making sure that the larvae are protected with some fine netting (since the Small Tortoiseshell is prone to parasitism by the Sturmia bella fly).

Cheers,

- Pete

Hi Pete:

Thanks for your advice. I have actually built a fairly large butterfly house completely enclosed in fine netting, and will put all the potted nettles inside. Probably when I get the larvae they will be very small, so I'll keep them indoors on cut nettle until they get big enough to go outside. I had planned to keep the butterflies for a bit in the hope of them breeding, but since they are probably going to be very inbred anyway, I think it's better to just release them and hope they find new stock to breed with. I released my Painted Lady butterflies today, and they don't seem to know what to do with their freedom. There are plenty of nectar plants in my garden for them to feed on, and a few Speckled Woods to keep them company.

On a different subject, many years ago I found a Red Admiral lying on the path outside my house, having been attacked by birds and very cold. I brought it indoors and fed it on sugar water, and it spent the winter with me, roosting on my curtains but often sitting on my shoulder. A visitor actually thought it was a brooch and was quite shocked when it ran away over my shoulder when she tried to touch it! I fed it every day and it would fly onto my hand to be taken to the food dish, which I'd set up under a table lamp. It became so tame that, come the Spring, it didn't want to leave and kept trying to get back into the house!

magwitch wrote:On a different subject, many years ago I found a Red Admiral lying on the path outside my house, having been attacked by birds and very cold. I brought it indoors and fed it on sugar water, and it spent the winter with me, roosting on my curtains but often sitting on my shoulder. A visitor actually thought it was a brooch and was quite shocked when it ran away over my shoulder when she tried to touch it! I fed it every day and it would fly onto my hand to be taken to the food dish, which I'd set up under a table lamp. It became so tame that, come the Spring, it didn't want to leave and kept trying to get back into the house!

That's a very interesting story. How long did your friend remain alive in the comfort of your house? Did he/she make any attempt to find a cooler spot to hibernate in or did he/she seek the warmth and food as long as it lasted? If you have the data I'd be very interested to know the date you found the butterfly and the last date you saw him/her alive (or the death date, if known). If a regular nectar supply can keep a red admiral alive all winter, even when active, that could have a bearing on the question of why an increasing number of red admirals are surviving the winter in the wild in the south of England.

Guy

EDIT: And what did you call the butterfly (so I don't have to keep writing 'he/she')?

Hi Guy:

Now you're asking! This would have been about 35 years ago, and I believe I found the butterfly in October. I was living in Caversfield, Oxon, at the time and had no central heating, just a gas fire, so the window area where the butterfly roosted would have been quite cool. As I recall, there was exceptionally heavy snowfall that winter. At that time I knew next to nothing about butterflies, so I have no idea if it was male or female, and I didn't give it a name. To simplify, let's call it George. I used to fill a tinfoil milk bottle top (remember those?) with sugar water and place it under a table lamp to give light and warmth, then I'd fetch George and take him to lunch. I did this once a day, every day, and he became very tame. I would have released him in March or April, once the weather had warmed and settled, and there were other butterflies about. He didn't want to leave at first and kept trying to get back in the window, but eventually he flew off. I saw other Red Admirals in my garden, which backed onto woodland (with deer!) and he could have been one of them. I didn't get close enough to them to see whether their wings were battered, as George's were from his previous close encounter with birds. Hope this helps.

Question: Working on the assumption that bought caterpillars are going to be inbred, if I buy several lots of caterpillars, i.e. Small Tortoiseshell, from different suppliers in different parts of the country, raise each lot to butterflies separately, split the males from the females and swap them round, will the resultant caterpillars from those matings be less inbred and healthier?

magwitch wrote:Question: Working on the assumption that bought caterpillars are going to be inbred, if I buy several lots of caterpillars, i.e. Small Tortoiseshell, from different suppliers in different parts of the country, raise each lot to butterflies separately, split the males from the females and swap them round, will the resultant caterpillars from those matings be less inbred and healthier?

Yup.

When I was breeding budgerigars I would rarely if ever allow stock from the same parents to inbreed with one another (though I would occasionally breed parent and offspring). Buying in new blood was a must to improve the overall gene pool.

You've seen what inbreeding does to the human population!!

Hi! Magwitch, I also got Painted lady caterpillars bought for me two years ago . Four came out successfully, I had one die, I put that down to the fact they were sent through what seemed an ordinary post. I found them outside in my post box!! One reason I never sent for any more. I fed them up to turning them loose on suger water and slices of Oranges, even mashed Banana,(over ripe) they loved it. They didn't want to leave either and actually attatched themselves to my Grand daughters finger, she got them out of their net that way, then and only then did they fly away.
I never gave inter breeding a thought, but of course your right.
Love the story about your Butterfly, I bet you were a little sad to see him go, I know i was when I let mine go I'd got quite attached to them. Goldie This pic is just one of them

Well, last year was not a success as far as butterflies was concerned. I bought caterpillars and pupae, hoping to raise them for release. My suspicion that they were constantly inbred was, I think, reinforced by the fact that over half of the pupae hatched with deformities and did not survive. The rest were not as healthy as I would have expected.

This year I have used a different strategy. Although I have a small garden, it is now crammed with insect-friendly plants, including two or three patches of nettles. Most of my neighbours' gardens are plant-free, which would not encourage insects into the area, but my little conservation garden has been crammed with insects of all species. I have seven species of bee (that I have seen anyway), Peacocks, Small Blues, Large Whites, Commas, Meadow Browns and Painted Lady butterflies, various moths, spiders and grasshoppers. At least I know these insects are not inbred for profit, and are healthy!

Artificial food for caterpillars always produces undersized adults, as it is not as good as potted natural food. Inbreeding is a problem but not for many generations, if we think that some of the wild species on nature reserves are often only seen in low numbers in the same spot year after year, they must be mostly inbreeding.

We have used the artificial diet for heliconid butterflies, it also produced undersized, short lived adults.

In 1996-1998 we experimented with Deaths Head Hawk Moths, from a wild pairs offspring, we were given 1 male and 1 female pupa, we managed to get at least 7 generations from these. in the last generation we had moths hatching without the claws on their legs, so could only expand their wings by putting a cork on their legs and hanging them over the edge of a table. We also did foodplant experiments, got them through on Sallow, Willow, Cherry, Poplar amongst other foods. Buddleia as a larval foodplant was not as good, the larvae do fine until the last instar, when they all died, even in natural conditions on growing buddleia they did the same.

its interesting with the number of Painted Lady kits sold each year to schools, that we dont get many sightings each year, when they are released into the wild.