Hey friends! I’ve got a new Butterfly Tale for you this week!!

Again I missed my Friday/Saturday posting day, but hey it’s only Sunday!

I’ve had a chance to raise a new surprise butterfly, a surprise Small Tortoiseshell butterfly to be precise. A few weeks ago I was sitting quietly in the garden enjoying an afternoon in the sun when this little guy crawled up my arm.

Honestly I jumped out of my skin!

Funky looking ain’t he?

Anyway this fellow is a Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) and are a medium/large sized butterfly with a wing span of up to 5.5cm, and are one of our most top 5 butterflies who use the common ol’ nettle as its food plant.

It was quite big and to be wandering away from the food plants meant it was probably pretty close to pupating.

I’ve always got a pot of nettles in my butterfly house (I’m weird like that!) so it was super easy to pop her into a house and give her a safe to create her chrysalis.

Within 72 hours she had turned into this wonderfully sparkly pupae, literally so pretty!

Just to point out my butterfly raising disclaimer, I’m only rescuing the ones I can identify as eggs/caterpillars as some can be tricky to raise or are protected species. If I don’t trust that I can look after them properly and give them the right food plant/proper environment then my plan is always to just leave them alone.

It only took about a week before this perfect butterfly emerged successfully. I missed it…but then I usually do!! *Now this is the exciting part if you click on the image above it should take you to a reel I posted to IG where you can see her flapping those lovely wings!*

She was even happy to pose for a few photos on the daisy flowers in my Wildspace and I think this is one of the best butterfly shots I’ve ever taken. *Again if you click on the image above it should take you to a reel I posted to IG where you can see her out in the wild!*

Although releasing the butterflies I’ve raised is genuinely the best part of caring for these creatures it always makes me a little sad as I become so emotionally invested in them.

Silly really.

So thats it for this week, I really hope you enjoyed this little slice of fluttery goodness! I feel so incredibly privileged to be able to care for these creatures.

Next week I’m hoping to maybe post some new art…or maybe a new embroidered butterfly.

As always thank you so much for reading this post and have a great week!

Ps. The links to IG is a new thing I’m trying so I’m hoping it works! If you head over there fancy following me I’m @artymissk!

Psps. I made a Small Tortoiseshell as part on my needlework butterflies challenge if you want to have a look its HERE!