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https://bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org/

You can download a chart so that you can ID the butterflies and day flying moths.Or download an app.And then you can find out which plants are important to them.https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/insects-invertebrates/big-butterfly-count-how-to-take-part-and-species-to-spot/

Philippa Bond ● 2293d13 Comments

The first butterfly other than the cabbage whites which I'm unfairly a bit snooty about that I've seen on a buddleia this year was a peacock  - a butterfly I hadn't seen for years.I had to cut back a bit of buddleia which had grown too tall and found quite a collection of insects on it.  At least three different colours and patterns of ladbybird.(Did you think they were only black and red?!)  Then there were the other beetles and so many butterflies and moths visit it.  I didn't think there were so many until the patio doors were open and the buddleia had reached just outside...

Philippa Bond ● 2293d

We have had more butterflies this year than we have seen for many years, which is heartening.Mainly peacocks, red admirals and common blues, but also tortoiseshell, painted lady, comma and meadow brown. Lots of moths, too.Cabbage whites.. yes well - lovely to see so many but they did get into the greenhouse where I was nurturing my purple sprouting broccoli seedlings, just a few days before I was ready to plant them out under a frame of debris netting. I now have a lot of stalks with leaves held together with holes.Less harlequin ladybirds this year, more 2- and 7- spot ones, which is good news!

Delilah Hall ● 2292d

I'm looking forward to seeing more!I understand that companion planting is worth doing to try and avoid those cabbage whites attacking your brassicas - marigolds and nasturtiums I think.We found that the pigeons and mice ate the spinach and it was the Swiss chard with brightly coloured stems which escaped damage. I've found lots of ladybird larvae and pupae on lime trees in the park but they appear to be harlequin ones. The RHS says not to worry about this as they all eat aphids...  The kids have been watching the metamorphosis of some 2-spot larvae into adults in the hopes that they will have learnt something they'll remember this term.  Before that they were watching the caterpillars of painted ladies go through metamorphosis.

Philippa Bond ● 2291d

Watching the life cycle of a ladybird is utterly fascinating - from the tiny yellow eggs, the miniscule black larvae that appear turning into voracious aphid-munching creatures, then how they adhere themselves to a leaf, twitching and making odd little movements whilst they develop..to emerge as an adult ladybird.. without spots! The spots start to appear after a few minutes. I have countless photos of all stages!I did once plant nasturtiums as my husband loves to look at, and eat, them but they were totally consumed by cabbage white cattys! My PSB is under debris netting now! The cabbage whites cluster around but cannot get to them.This afternoon I watched a peacock butterfly walking around - on closer inspection it had completely lost one of it's four wings and could not fly - I gave it a drink of sugary water, it was very thirsty and then put it onto the sweetpeas - it kept trying to fly and fell off time and time again, although was happy to walk about on my hands.Might sound daft but it had a profound affect on me, something so beautiful, so lively and so desperate to fly yet unable to. I finally placed it amongst flowers in the veggie plot where the ducks cannot get to (they would eat the creature if they could, not to mention the veggies). It might have been kinder to send it on it's way - but I couldn't.

Delilah Hall ● 2291d

Yes, I'm finding the life cycle of ladybirds fascinating too but I suspect I'll have to wait until another year to find the eggs.  I'm sure I've seen larvae on a privet that once existed on our street.  I understand the adult lays the eggs somewhere where the larvae will have plenty to eat. Only with harlequins does the lime tree and sycamore tree get a mention.I didn't realise that when they emerged they had no spots.I thought that the cabbage whites would be distracted and prefer the nasturtiums.  They are good in salads and as children we liked biting a tiny bit off the back of the flower and sucking out the nectar. I think you can pickle the seeds as well. They are a bit piquante!Sorry to hear about your peacock butterfly - it is so sad when this happens to something so small fragile and beautiful when you are lucky enough to be graced by a visit but a good chance to get better look at it.I understand that house martins, swallows and swifts are  the ladybirds predators.  Man just makes it more difficult for them by killing the plants they lay eggs on and spraying the insects they prey on.  :(  The constant trimming of shrubbery so it never gets a chance to flower and the use of chemicals to kill all the wild flowers in the grass that insects love like dandelions is such a shame.

Philippa Bond ● 2290d

I saw a Jersey Tiger moth in my garden on Friday. I thought it was an exotic butterfly I’d never seen before but later found out it was a day flying moth.https://www.towerhabitats.org/news/look-out-for-jersey-tigers/Very beautiful to see.

Michael David Rowe ● 2289d

They are great aren't they?  I know these and love their markings - especially the way the thorax has a different pattern - stripes.  Some have under wings golden yellow and some orange and some red.  It feeds on nettles and white deadnettles and brambles - all of which are under threat in a lot of London.  I also love another day moth - the cinnabar moth - which is more restrained in its colours - just red and black like ceremonial robes.  Its caterpillars which you'll often find feeding on stinking willie are much more ostentatious with their black and orange stripes!I've never been lucky enough to see either in London.  That's a great website showing what they are doing for biodiversity in Tower Hamlets.

Philippa Bond ● 2288d

I took photos of a newly hatched ladybird a few years ago (I was obsessed!) It took a while for the red colour to develop but these pics show it newly emerged and the spots beginning to show after a few minutes.. in the 2nd pic the ladybird had just opened it's wing cases to allow the wings to dry...

Delilah Hall ● 2287d

Fantastic photos.  I bet a lot of people didn't realise it's not their wings which are brightly coloured but their wing cases.Today I took a photo of a blue butterfly but it didn't want to open its wings once it had landed.

Philippa Bond ● 2283d

Butterflies are lovely... for some reason make me feel nostalgic think they remind me of being in a relatives pub in the country when I was butterboy...

Peter Brown ● 2283d

Another jersey tiger moth! In my garden last week and today in my kitchen. Took me a while to find out what it was. Disappeared now.

Vivienne Cox ● 2283d

I would love to breed them when I have more time.  And keep bees

Claire Moran ● 2283d

Came across three lovely bumble bees the other days fast asleep on the lovely lavender I walked past in somebody's front garden.  Definitely asleep.  I've also seen rather drunk ones falling off the catmint.

Philippa Bond ● 2282d