A Lady Brimstone comes alaying in my garden.
Posted: Tue May 15, 2018 11:43 pm
The cold start to Spring locally meant my two potted Alder Buckthorns have been slow to come into full leaf. A month ago I saw a female Brimstone feeding on a Dandelion Flower... no other nectar sources in this slow start to Spring temperatures. The insect did not stay long. My potted plants had barely started to open their leaf buds back then.
Today was again a nice warm one with near continuous sunshine so I did some work on the cars. Took a break and whilst making some tea in the early afternoon, through the kitchen window I saw a female Brimstone flying around my two potted plants and laying. I quickly got my simple compact camera and inserted the Memory Card, set it to Movie. Then moved outside and got some hurried footage of the butterfly busy laying. It spent the best part of half and hour in and about the garden inspecting every plant briefly then returning to lay one of two more ova. I observed at least a dozen visits to the plants and the curvature of the abdomen with each deposited ovum. I managed to get some representative footage with the limited equipment. Here it is.:~
View My Video
Edit to add @ 0:47
Checking the leaves later, I counted at least a dozen ova. Considering the Brimstone is a large-ish Butterfly by UK standards, they lay remarkably disproportionately small ova. Very small and mosty laid on the underside of the leaves.
Today was again a nice warm one with near continuous sunshine so I did some work on the cars. Took a break and whilst making some tea in the early afternoon, through the kitchen window I saw a female Brimstone flying around my two potted plants and laying. I quickly got my simple compact camera and inserted the Memory Card, set it to Movie. Then moved outside and got some hurried footage of the butterfly busy laying. It spent the best part of half and hour in and about the garden inspecting every plant briefly then returning to lay one of two more ova. I observed at least a dozen visits to the plants and the curvature of the abdomen with each deposited ovum. I managed to get some representative footage with the limited equipment. Here it is.:~
View My Video
Edit to add @ 0:47
Checking the leaves later, I counted at least a dozen ova. Considering the Brimstone is a large-ish Butterfly by UK standards, they lay remarkably disproportionately small ova. Very small and mosty laid on the underside of the leaves.