www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

i wanted to start my diarie today . i am a 1st timer at looking after catpillers . basicly i went to take photo yesterday and cam across some black catpillers




so today i wanted to find out what kind of moth / butterfly they would be and i niver got a 100% answer but its between a peacock or a Tortoiseshell butterfly
it very exsiting so me and my family have desiced to go back and get 12 catapiller tomorow were only getting so meny because there a high death rate with this kind of catpiller and we plan to let go any that make it to adulthood were going to let them go where we 1st got them from.

so to night i am cleanng a tank to get it ready and getting a box ready to bring them home in
i will update tomorrow with a photo of my 12 catapillers and a photo of them in there new home

sorry about the spelling i am dyslexic

i think this will be very good for my kids who are 11 , 9 , 3 and 1 as it so much fun to see them change into butterflys then let them go and see them fly away

I'm sure the kids will be fascinated, and given that you're dealing with a common species, I see no harm in taking a sample to rear yourself.

Good luck.

i would not be touching them if they were rare and were gona take the best care of them lol hopefuly it will help my kids learn taht we need to look after them

so we have are caterpillers home now there just looking around there new tank .
here some more photo of them

Some loverly caterpillar photos i do believe they are peacock caterpillars

Chris

i'm wating to find out if i got into a photograthy college course . sooooooooooo these wee caterpillars will be having a lot of photos taken of them lol you prob be sick of seeing them in a few weaks lol

I shall keep an eye on your diary over the coming weeks then, i always find it interesting seeing how things develop and good luck with the photography course

Chris

i hope the poor caterpillars like metal music lol . i'm going to try to take butterfly photo over the summer but tbh you dont see meny about here

im quite lucky we get quite a few butterflies by me good choice of music by the way

Chris

well my caterpillars are very quite today i did see a few eatting a wee bit today
but the did spend all yesterday trying to get out of the tank and were up very late at it so i think there just having a quite day i hope

It's great to see you following the life cycle through from the caterpillar stage - I hope some of them make it through to adult butterflies! I expect you have seen some of Vince Massimo's posts of early stages of various species. I'm sure they will enjoy the music - many animals seem to - and it's a good education for the kids!

Mike

You seem to have thistles in the tank and one of the caterpillars is on a thistle leaf. They will not eat this, as I'm sure you know, and need a fresh supply of living nettle (which you also seem to have in the tank).

If large caterpillars try to escape it may be that they are looking for a suitable place to pupate. This would also explain why some are not eating - they may have finished with food. I've never kept peacocks and others can advise better, but there need to be some strong stems in the tank for them to pupate on. If you see any hanging head down, in a slightly curved position, they are likely to be preparing for pupation and should not be moved.

After they pupate they will spend between two weeks and a month as a chrysalis. I hope others who have bred this species will advise on how to prepare for their emergence.

Guy

I have bred Peacocks a few times, and can confirm that when they are fully fed and ready to pupate they develop an urge to wander off. If their cage/tank is not completely secured they will escape for certain and will find the most unlikely spots to pupate in your house. However, within the cage they may spend a whole day just wandering before hanging upside-down from the roof, or from the stem or underside of a leaf of the foodplant. If the environment is reasonably warm and bright (not sunny), they may emerge in ten days; otherwise up to three weeks.
The pupae will start off either grey-brown or sometimes bright green, both with gold/silver markings to some extent. A few days before emergence you may well see the colours of the butterfly's wings appear through the pupal casing in exquisite miniature detail. The adult butterflies tend to hatch early on sunny mornings (even though they must be kept out of the sun, they seem to be able to sense the heightened light levels), so be prepared to get up at 7 to find some adults already hanging from the underside of the cage. They will continue to hatch over a few hours. If you notice that they pupated on different days, you will find they will hatch on successive days too.
You must try and resist the temptation to handle the new butterflies until after they have fully inflated their wings and dried them - this can take a couple of hours. Once this has happened, you may be able to "walk" them onto your finger so that you can transfer them to the outside world. Make sure you have a sunny window open, so that if they do take to the air early, they can find their way out. With luck, you will be able to transfer them from your finger to a sunny shrub outside where they will open their wings and bask before they take off for their first flight. Then you can admire close to the astonishing beauty of a newly-emerged Peacock butterfly.

Dave

we brought back the two kinds of plants they were eatting . maybe it was just a few comfused caterpillars trying the other plant oops

so there been a big change

i woke up to my catrpillers turning into crysilis thing was i was getting them sticks today but there more than happy on the netting on top of my tank

also i had my 1st try at taken butterfly photos 2 days ago there not ace cause the butterfly would not let me get to close or it would fly away

You've clearly got the 'bug'! The first Red Admiral photo is particularly good and it's nice to hear that your caterpillars have pupated successfully.

Mike

yes all 12 are in there crysalis its really cool to see

this is a photo takn today . but i'm having a problem as i need tocraln the tank but some are hanging from the lid so i cant get in the tank without having to life the lid with them still hanging from it

Give it a few days for all the pupae to be hard and then, very gently, do what is necessary. I don't think cleanliness is important - unless you have noxious or rotting materials in the tank - but it will be important to provide sufficient vertical twigs and surfaces for emerging butterflies to crawl up and dry their wings on. Again, others, I hope, will advise you on this. I have very limited experience.

You have done amazingly well to get this far! I hope all the butterflies emerge successfully. It goes without saying that when they do they are very vulnerable and fragile and exciting as it will be to watch they must not be handled in any way when they are all soft and pumping up their wings.

Guy

Amazing to see the chrysalis all in a row like that. Great fun for you and the kids. I rarely find chrysalis in the wild and doing what you have done seems to be my best chance of seing any.