Release Day

The time has come to release the five painted lady butterflies. They arrived in the post as five minuscule caterpillars, fed on the food in their little pot and grew hugely, pupated into five crysalides which I transferred into a temporary butterfly house, and mature butterflies finally emerged on Saturday morning. The whole process has been fascinating to watch, and I have learnt a lot about butterfly metamorphosis along the way.

The next two days look to be grey and wet from the forecast, and the advice is to release emergent butterflies after 2-4 days. So late morning I took the butterfly home into the garden and unzipped the top. Two flew out immediately, and were well away. Two others - here is one in the image - were more cautious and hung around a little while, allowing me to photograph them. And the fifth was a bit of a “cling-on” and wasn’t for budging - but did go eventually.

Hopefully they’ll mate, lay eggs and the whole process can begin again. A super-migratory species they or more likely their descendants will travel to the arid lands south of the Sahara desert.

Extra - painted ladies deserve to be seen in colour.