• ABOUT
  • BIRDING 2018
  • Birding 2019
  • BLOG POSTS
  • Butterflies 2018
  • Resources

earthstar

~ a celebration of nature

earthstar

Tag Archives: Aglais io

160/366 Peacocks in the nettles

08 Monday Jun 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Aglais io, British butterflies, butterfly caterpillars, butterfly larvae, Peacock butterfly, Peacock butterfly larvae, Peacock caterpillars

’Tis the time of the larvae, in this case, the larvae of the Peacock butterfly (Aglais io).

200608 peacock caterpillars (1)

According to Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, a female Peacock lays her eggs in batches of about 400 in the centre of a patch of nettles growing in a sheltered position that enjoys full sun. After about two weeks, the Peacock larvae/caterpillars hatch and begin their journey to adulthood.

200608 peacock caterpillars (3)
200608 peacock caterpillars (4)

As they munch on the nettles, they grow, and as they grow, they need to moult their skins. They do this four times, each stage known as an instar, before they pupate. The process takes about 30 days in total, and each of the five instars looks a little different.

200608 peacock caterpillars (2)

During last Friday’s walk, I was lucky enough to find big colonies of larvae in two different places, and both groups had larvae of the third, fourth and fifth instars, all feeding together. In the photo above, the brownish caterpillars are third instar, the darker caterpillars with spines and spots are fourth instar, and the large caterpillar on the right of the image is fifth instar.

200608 peacock caterpillars (5)

Not surprisingly, I got a few nettle stings getting these photos but it was worth it. As some of the largest caterpillars looked very close to pupation, I’ll revisit one of these sites this week to see if I can locate any pupas.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

81/366 Number 3!

21 Saturday Mar 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, spring

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Aglais io, British butterflies, butterfly, Peacock, Peacock butterfly

Yesterday’s walk around Cardiff Bay didn’t only bring nice birds, it also produced my second butterfly species for the year, a Small tortoiseshell. Unfortunately, the wind blew it away so quickly, twice, that I didn’t manage a photo. But I did get a couple of shots of today’s third species, this lovely Peacock. And I also saw number four, my first Brimstone, a male that was so intent on flying back and forth along the footpath trying to find a female that I only got a blurry shot of it. In these troubled times, it makes my heart sing to see the butterflies emerging again.

200321 Peacock

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

March of the caterpillars

20 Tuesday Jun 2017

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Aglais io, butterflies, caterpillar, Euproctis similis, Lasiocampa quercus, moth larvae, moths, Oak eggar, Peacock butterfly, Yellow-tail

Perhaps that should really be MUNCH of the caterpillars because these little creatures are really the ultimate food processors. They eat ravenously, they ingest determinedly, they process interminably, and, yes, they pooh prodigiously. What a life!

170620 Oak eggar larva (1)

They can be covered in bristles: watch these ones as people with sensitive skin often get a rash from touching them because they can contain chemicals to deter predators from eating them. They can be dull to blend in with the vegetation on their favourite food plant. They can be patterned in startling colours and patterns, again as a warning to predators – ‘Don’t eat me!’

170620 Oak eggar larva (3)
170620 Yellow-tail larva (3)

These particular caterpillars are the larvae of two moths and one butterfly. The hairy ones are the moths, Oak eggar (Lasiocampa quercus) and Yellow-tail (Euproctis similis), and the spiky black one with white dots is the rather surprisingly coloured caterpillar of the Peacock butterfly (Aglais io).

170620 Oak eggar larva (2)
170620 Peacock caterpillars (1)
170620 Peacock caterpillars (2)
170620 Yellow-tail larva (1)
170620 Yellow-tail larva (2)

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

A bumper day for butterflies, and a moth

13 Saturday May 2017

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, parks

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Aglais io, Brimstone, British butterflies, British moth, butterflies, butterfly, Common blue, Cyclophora annularia, Dingy Skipper, Erynnis tages, Gonepteryx rhamni, moth, Pararge aegeria, Peacock, Polyommatus icarus, Speckled wood, The Mocha

Blue skies, warm temperatures, wildflowers in bloom – what more could a butterfly want? Not much it seems as they were out in force at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park and I spent several happy hours following them around, trying to get photographs but also just intrigued by their flight patterns, the food plants they were choosing and their general behaviour. The Whites, large and small, eluded my lens, as did several Orange-tips and one Red Admiral but I did manage to snap these six.

170513 (1) Brimstone
170513 (2) Common blue
170513 (3) Peacock

The first is a Brimstone butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni), not to be confused with the moth of the same name. I saw two flying together, land together and then the male heading purposefully towards the female. Turns out though that her spreading her wings and raising her abdomen in the air was not a ‘come hither’ signal but rather the opposite. She was indicating that she had already mated and was rebuffing the male. I saw several Common blues (Polyommatus icarus), also easily confused with other very similar small blue butterflies. They are so vibrant! And seeing a Peacock (Aglais io) is always a treat, though this one was looking a little battered.

170513 (4) Speckled wood
170513 (5) Dingy skipper
170513 (6) Mocha moth

Speckled woods (Pararge aegeria) seem to be the butterflies I see most often wherever I go but I love their pretty dappling of brown and cream. The next was a new one for me and I saw two of them – it’s a Dingy Skipper (Erynnis tages), a butterfly whose caterpillars feed on Bird’s-foot trefoil so it’s often found on the short impoverished grasslands of former coal tips, rubbish tips and quarries. I’ve just learnt that it’s called Dingy because ‘it loses scales alarmingly as it get older so looks, well, dingy’ (thanks, Steven). The last is not a butterfly but a moth and rather a special moth, The Mocha (Cyclophora annularia). This moth is nationally scarce but more frequent in the woodlands of southern Britain so I was well pleased with this sighting.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Fluttering butterflies, no.1

26 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, nature photography

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Aglais io, butterflies, butterfly, Cabbage white, Pararge aegeria, Peacock, Pieris rapae, Small white, Speckled wood

‘The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough,’ wrote Bengali Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore – perhaps a lesson for us all.

The first butterflies of spring-summer 2016 have now begun fluttering around me when I’m out walking. Like the bees and the hoverflies, I find they add an extra dimension to my wanderings, a whisper of magic, a hint of fairies …

Small White male Pieris rapae Bute 100416

The Small white (Pieris rapae) was the first butterfly I saw, a couple of weeks ago, during a walk around Cardiff Bay, but it eluded my attempts to photograph it. Both this and the Large white are known as the ‘Cabbage Whites’ for the damage their caterpillars do to the cabbage and other vegetable plants; I have childhood memories of my father regularly checking the undersides of his cabbage leaves and cursing those caterpillars! Though this butterfly has been known to fly as far as 100 miles in its lifetime, it couldn’t fly to New Zealand – in the days before strict agricultural border controls, it was accidentally introduced there, to Australia and to North America.

Peacock Aglais io Cosmeston 200416
Peacock Ty Rhiw

What a glorious creature the Peacock butterfly is and how lovely it looks on this blackthorn blossom, though this Peacock has seen better days; it’s a little faded and has parts of its wings missing. Aglais io gets its common name, obviously, from the unmistakable ‘eyes’ on its wings, so reminiscent of a peacock’s spectacular tail, but its underwings are quite the opposite, dark and easily mistaken for dead leaves in a woodland setting.

Speckled wood Cathays Cem 240416 (4)
Speckled wood Pararge aegeria Penarth railtrail 200416

The Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) is the butterfly I’ve seen most often in the past couple of weeks, in the woodlands of Cosmeston and Bute Park and also in tree-filled Cathays Cemetery, where the two shown together above charmed me with their delicate spiralling dance. Is it love or the love of the chase, I wonder?

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

View Full Profile →

Follow earthstar on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Recent blog posts

  • Mossy gravestone February 27, 2021
  • Nipplewort Rust February 26, 2021
  • First hoverfly February 25, 2021
  • Spot the spider February 24, 2021
  • Leaf mines: Phytomyza ilicis February 23, 2021

From the archives

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

COPYRIGHT

Unless otherwise acknowledged, the text and photographs on this blog are my own and are subject to international copyright. Nothing may be downloaded or copied without my permission.

Click on the category

'Dedicated Naturalist' Project 365DaysWildin2019 amphibian animals autumn birds coastal fauna flowers fungi geology insects ladybird leaves lichen mammal molluscs nature nature photography parks plants reptiles seaside seasons spiders spring trees walks weather wildflowers winter

Fellow Earth Stars!

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×
    %d bloggers like this: