cool..good to know..thanks again
Yvonne, I think everyone has different experiences with feeding them, as I recently found 9 Red Admiral caterpillars on Urtica ferox in Keneperu. They were a mix of sizes when I got them and I bought them home, and they straight away transferred onto Urtica dioica, and remained with that till they pupaed, and emerged as the largest Red Admirals I have had so far. (That may have been because of the area they came from perhaps)
Great post..thanks Anna..aparrently ferox to the others doesn’t work..something about the toxin levels..great about rooting them in water..this will be great !! thanks for that
So far with the Admirals, both Reds and Yellows, I have found that mine have happily switched between each type, and at all stages, but that may be the way I have been raising them in the container system?
It may be different if you have them on plants perhaps,
although even in the butterfly enclosure, they have walked from Urtica dioica, and Urtica urens onto the Chatham Island if the plants are touching.
ps/ It may be interesting to note that I have managed to get roots growing on nettles within a few weeks, by putting the cuttings in jars of water. So far I have tried, Urtica dioica, urens, ferox and austrails (Chatham one)
Thanks Norm, trouble is the admirals cover the outdoor nettles and I transfer to the tree nettle which keeps them going a lot longer.
Whatever the breed of caterpillar I think it is wise to keep it on the hostplant it started feeding on. While some caterpillars will change to a different hostplant when the first one becomes stripped, others will refuse to eat another variety if changed to it, so it is best to keep to the original.
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