Hey friends,

How are ya!?

I’ve got a new butterfly tale for you! This post has been a while in the making and actually began in May…when I planted cabbages in my Wildspace so that the cabbage butterflies had a place to lay their eggs – I really dislike that vegetable growers sometimes treat them as pests and decided that the little patch of nature I’ve been blessed with would welcome these butterflies.

Anyway, on the 2nd of June I sat and watched a Large white (Pieris brassicas) flutter around the garden and she took a fancy to one of the cabbage leaves…they’re actually really picky about what leaves they lay eggs on and watching her, was like she was trying all the leaves for size.

She laid a clutch (I think that’s the right word) of about 50 eggs, which took almost half and hour. They were superbly yellow against the green of the cabbage. I’ve reared cabbage butterflies before but have found they thrive better when reared on a food plant (as opposed to Small torts that don’t mind just being fed nettle leaves) and I’ve not got cabbages growing in the house (you have to draw the line somewhere!).

Sadly these caterpillars can be parasitised by predators which makes the eggs puff up like rice krispies and means that the caterpillar dies. To try and stop this I picked up an old bird cage in a charity shop, removed the bottom and covered it with a no longer used net curtain to create a delicate Outdoor caterpillar protector, which works just like a plant bell cloche but the little holes in the netting allow air to circulate. I was so surprised that it actually worked!

I was excited to get a photo of them hatching, I didn’t realise the eggs turn clear and ‘colour up’ which is something that the chrysalises also do later in the life cycle.

Rather sweetly they really stay quite close to each other. I happen to be utterly fascinated by caterpillars and could watch them for hours.

Apparently to try and deter predators these ones give off a mustardy smell!

By the end of June I had to move them onto a second cabbage they’d grown so much and all that was left of the decimated veggie was its main leaf stems! And then only 24 hours later had to move them again although I could only find 39 of them – being a loser I counted them as I gently picked them up and moved them to a neighbouring veg.

I was surprised at how soft they were to touch – similar to the buds of a pussy willow. Going by the general theory that 1 in 50 caterpillars becomes a butterfly I wasn’t expecting so many of them to have survived so well, they must’ve been a couple of inches long.

On the third cabbage 34 of the little guys successfully became pupae! Aren’t they the weirdest looking things?! I was never expecting to keep all 50 of them under the cloche and hopefully the others ended up free-ranging in the garden somewhere…but I’m so pleased to have definitely raised 34 of them!

The big release day came after a few days of torrential rain and when I lifted they cloche off of the ground none of them moved they just stayed sat on the inside of it, until the first few brave souls flew out.

It was really something to see so many of them flying around at once, something I love when comparing these ones to something like the Painted ladies I released a couple of weeks ago is just how easy it is to tell the males from the females as the boys lack the upper wing spots.

This photo is super special to me for multiple reasons, its the first time I’ve seen butterflies mating (besides the Painted ladies in my butterfly house) but also because it means that I managed to get a photograph of these guys at every stage in their lifecycle!

It takes my current released butterfly total to 55 (but I’ve also got a bunch more Painted ladies to go).

I really hope you enjoyed this slice of fluttery, nature filled goodness! Ever watched the life cycle of a butterfly? As always thank you so much for reading and have a great weekend!