Beautiful Butterflies 2018

Both correct Hazel.

WendyBartter said:

The proper sequence of events regarding my Butterflies  is that I brought home five of the many Peacock Butterfly larvae we came across on nettle at local reserve ... they were near pupation size & thought how wonderful it would be to try & capture emergence on cam!

Here's a slide show I made on 25th August after visiting Monkton Nature Reserve

(Please visit the site to view this video)

I fed them for a further four days until they pupated on 29th Aug ... unfortunately I was unable to record this process as they had attached themselves to net covering their pot but I did manage to watch one of them transforming, magical process!

I carefully cut round the net today & transferred to Butterfly House & attached with safety pins so very minimum disturbance, the fifth one decided to attach to the paper towel in the base ... not long to wait so I read, about two week's pupation!

Couldn't resist showing you their discarded skins with heads attached! Lol

Hard to believe such a very pretty & quite large Butterfly will come out of those pupal cases ... fingers firmly crossed that not parasitised (looking very healthy though) & beautiful things emerge ... I shall release them at MNR!

 

 

Only 10 days later & two have eclosed ... S.Law prevailed again, noticed that these two had gone completely black & feared the worst, gave a light misting to all & placed butterfly house beside me ................. edited & uploaded Mr K vid & when I looked the first one was out .......................went into kitchen to prepare veg for dinner & the second one sneaked out!!!!!!!

Sat down now avidly looking at the rest!   Pics to follow

I seem to remember an advert about Pandas & Kit-kat that sounds like that Wendy! Just don't get up for a comfort break (as they call it now).

Unknown said:

Hi Mike, your first butterfly is a Speckled Wood and 2nd possibly Gatekeeper as it appears to have two white spots inside the black one - but wait for the experts as I'm not sure.

Many thanks Hazel for the correction.

I will confess that when I was looking them up, it was a bit of a struggle, so I just plumped for a guess.

Hazel C said:

I seem to remember an advert about Pandas & Kit-kat that sounds like that Wendy! Just don't get up for a comfort break (as they call it now).

Like this one...

KIT KAT - Panda TV Advert

Lol H ... I remember that too, made me laugh every time but now it's happening to me is not so funny!  Just had to do kitchen stuff with food, shame it's not ready made sarnies!!

Couple of dodgy pics, they are so dark when closed up

16.03

17.05 ... a little blurry but shows promise of those dazzling colours to come

Sat eating dinner when #1 decides it's time to leave ... hasty transfer to another pot where it obliged with this pose

What a beauty!!  Had a shifty around so that the two could have Butterfly house with fresh flowers sprinkled with sugar water whilst the three pupae are in a big pot right under my nose ... I fear that one may have been parasitised!

WendyBartter said:

What a beauty!! 

Yep, I'd agree with that. Given the weather today they're better off with you I think!

Thanks Nige, not too bad here, your rain never reached us!