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Does anyone have any tips on finding WA larvae at this time of the year? I've just spent a fruitless three hours in a good place with plenty of the right sort of Honeysuckle (I was finding eggs there easily in the summer), but with no sign of larvae, hibernaculi, or feeding damage. Will the larvae have left their winter shelters by now? At which instar do they hibernate? Does anyone have pix of early spring larvae? Any help would be very welcome

Tony M.

Assuming the honeysuckle is still brittle and straw-coloured, as it is in Switzerland, the cats will still be in their hibernacula. Generally, it is not possible to see the caterpillar inside the hibernaculum but occasionally it is open at the top and the 2nd instar larva can just be seen within.

Because a different honeysuckle species is used in the UK, with different habits, any advice I can give on finding hibernacula might not hold good there. Here, small leaves towards the outer parts of branches are tailored and rolled to make neat containers. These are sealed with silk and also made fast to the twig with copious silk. That is one way of telling if a rolled-up, brown leaf is a hibernaculum or just a rolled-up brown leaf.

This is a hibernaculum viewed from above, showing the silk securing it and a glimpse of the caterpillar inside:



A side view - it just looks like a dead leaf. Some are neater than this and some more scraggly. But all wil be rolled and sealed. Usually, you can see where the caterpillar has nibbled the leaf to make it easier to shape as it wants.



These hibernacula are very easy to find. The twigs are bare and leafless so any remaining dead leaves stand out very obviously.

Guy

Hi Tony,

Guy is obviously right about the White Admiral still being in hibernation, whether its in Switzerland or England. And when the larva do make an appearance as a 2nd instar larva, it will depend on the amount of light/sunshine that gets through the canopy, simply for the warmth. So the darker the wood, the colder it is more likely to be, and the larva will take longer to emerge. Temperature will play a key role on when the larva do make an appearance, and of course food supply. I found this 2nd instar larva in a rather dark wood at the beginning of May in Surrey, [it was to dark for photography and i had to take the larva out into the open, then put it back where i found it afterwards. Other people on this forum were at the same time, posting photos of 3rd or 4th instars, so it must of been a lot lighter and warmer where they were finding them. Apparently one person was photographing them at 6 o'clock in the morning, so imagine how much light and warmth was getting into that wood which, i believe was in Hampshire.
This is the same larva taken four days later.And this is a 3rd instar taken on the 17th May.

Hope that helps.

All the best, Nick.

Thanks, Guy.

The buds have already burst on the Honeysuckle here, so I imagine the larvae have already left their winter quarters. I did find a number of prettily hanging dead leaves, which turned out to be precisely that ! I was amazed to see absolutely no feeding damage apart from a few leaf miners. I'll have another go next winter...

Tony.

Forgot to mention the 2nd instar larva is only about 5mm in length.

All the best, Nick.

Thanks, Nick - very helpful.

They must have been seriously camouflaged, where I was looking - I didn't see a trace of silk. I'll have another go in a month or so.

Tony.