Excellent Joanna. Old saleyards, cattle yards or sheep yards and showgrounds are always worth a look for nettles. I haven’t had any parasatoids (?) yet in either Red or Yellow Admirals, but did get wilt or NPV in both kinds of larvae. I’m not sure whether I brought this in with wild-collected larvae, or whether it was still on my plants from last year. Either way, it must have been bad husbandry on my part. 🙁
Yes, thanks for the reminder! I have done so for other sightings – but not for that group yet…. info still in my diary! I will record the sightings tomorrow night.
I collected a few larvae and pupae today to continue raising in my caterpillar castle. I’m interested to see if I get the same high % of ichneumon wasps from the pupae as I did last autumn. Shocking! No wonder the admirals are so few and far between!
Also have some yellow admirals on the go…. found a good crop of european nettle down at the A&P showgrounds which have small larvae on them…so looking forward to seeing how successful I am with those.
Joanna can you report your sighting on the website? Helps us know where they are still found and hopefully we will be able to see whether they are in decline or not. You can go through the menus Projects then Report butterfly sighting or you can just click on the link https://www.monarch.org.nz/projects/report-a-sighting/
Anna – yet it was great! I live in Masterton but that sighting was in the bush behind Wainuiomata (near Hutt Valley). It’s the water catchment area and the bush is fantastic there. Large numbers of RA have been seen nectaring on white rata flowers there.
Jacqui-I love the caterpillar castle!Released the last of my little batch of RA from it the other day and look forward to raising more soon, when I can find some caterpillars..
Joanna – what do you think of your caterpillar castle? I wouldn’t be without mine.
Joanna…15 Red Admirals! Thats great.
What part of the country are you in?
Yes I do have a castle ordered. The failures I had last summer were from the chrysalis (plural) I took from the wild – just as an experiment to see what emerged. The ones I am raising now are indoors but a castle would help in many ways, including keeping the cats away from them!
I think 2 of the chrysalis I took from the wild this year were already parasitised as they are very dark with a coppery patch which Norm alerted me to.I’m tempted to snip one open to see…..
Questions: I have been misting the chysalis – should I do this daily? Should a castle be kept in a cool or warm part of the house?
Saw 15 red admirals today!! That was exciting!
These are highly recommended – designed for the purpose!
Caterpillar Castles
Jacqui
Earthlore…it can get really frustrating can’t it?!
I find that many spiders come out at night, so I get as many as I can in the butterfly house using a torch.
Joanna…I have found by keeping any pupae indoors, in a butterfly tent that I bought, or a container covered with muslin seems to keep them protected…till they emerge.
Ok, we thought we’d made a predator proof butterfly house for red admirals, but though we are keeping out the wasps, can anyone tell us how to keep the spiders out? We do a sweep for webs every few days, but looks like we need to do it every day. We are trying to provide a safe haven for butterflies but are instead providing a free lunch for spiders! Very frustrating. Any ideas?
Hi Joanna
The feedback is in many places – comments in different Facebook groups that I belong to, to do with butterflies, and the WWBBF and AUSNZ email lists mainly. Worldwide Butterfly Breeding Forum (I think) and Australia and NZ Lepidoptera email lists.
You can join the two email lists here if you want:
http://groups.google.com/group/wwbbf?hl=en-GB?hl=en
http://groups.google.com/group/ausnzleps?hl=en-GB.
And if you’re on FB, then “friend” me and then review the groups and oontacts that I follow.
Earthlore – I was interested to read your post and look forward to visiting Owaka again and meeting you. Last summer I had a small attempt at “creching” (away from wasp predation) some red admiral caterpillars and chrysalis I took from the wild. No success I’m afraid – all I got was a good crop of large ichneumon wasps! Can someone clarify for me whether all stages (ova,larvae, pupa) can be parasitised by ichneumon or is it just the soft early pupa stage?
I’m having another go now with 3 caterpillars which I’m raising on urtica urens. One died, one pupated ok and the last one is just pupating now. My plan is to release the butterflies if that’s successful as I do see the odd RA flying around our place each summer.
Jacquie – I’ve been looking for the feedback you mentioned re earthlore’s feed station – can you point me in the right direction? Cheers
Your “Feeding station” is getting lots of favourable feedback in various forums and discussion groups. A brilliant idea!
Feeling a bit embarassed as I’ve now found the excellent tips on breeding for release in other areas of the forum. Lots of helpful info there already, thank you.
Report a pest
