A FEW WORDS ABOUT VANESSA ATALANTA - for the : Thursday is Butterfly Day and Insect Day Giveaway- Week 50
When the short gloomy days of winter replace the mostly sunny flow of time of the rest of the year, and the variety of insects and various small invertebrates disappears from the scene ... I can still, occasionally, when the temperature rises a bit which happens relatively often even at the peak of the cold season, see these lovely butterflies in the sleepy, relatively desolate winter atmosphere.
Here is one I caught on photograph in the days around Christmas. Some generations of adult Red admirals, vanessa atalanta hibernate during the winter and have a considerably longer life span than the Spring - Summer generations. Up to 10 months instead of 4 - 5 months. Here in Southern Europe, with short and mild winters, this hibernation is regularly interrupted by short periods of favorable weather.
The adult males are very territorial, they spend a lot of time patrolling their patches of land, and you can often see butterflies chasing each other ... which is a cool little natural spectacle ... I hope I'll catch this butterfly action on photograph one day. Only males with secured territory have chance to mate, that's this species reproductive policy.
The primary host plant for Red admiral Caterpillar is the Common nettle(Urtica dioica) , the one that stings ...
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... and here ... you can see a bunch of those caterpillars on the nettle. This shot was taken very early in the spring. Although most commonly you can see them on this stinging nettle, the larvae can occasionally be found also on the False nettle (Boehmeria cylindrica) and some other plants of the Compositae and Cannabaceae family.
And now, to add a bit of visual biodiversity to the post ...
... I'll include this minuscule fruit fly, that I photographed also on that day near Christmas 2019 among the fallen leaves ...
... and this centipede hiding under the bark of some rotting branch nearby, on the same day.
And that's it, all I have to say and show today :) THE END ... as always in these posts on Steemit, the photographs are my work.
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Thank you
Good insects, our insects begin to wake up, and I took a couple of photos;)
:) Great ... the nature is more interesting when insects are active.
It's true! And also, today I saw a huge pheasant, a magnificent male with red and blue feathers, but failed to photograph, he flew high and hid behind the trees (((
Yes, birds can be a difficult subject ... and very shy ... but maybe next time you'll have more luck.
I hope so, especially the season is just beginning)
:)
I have never seen Red admiral caterpillars before so thanks for sharing this photo. Look at how many there are. And I can't believe you managed to get a photo of the very tiny fruit fly! Beautiful photos as always @borjan. Please send me your short and mild winters. Spring will arrive in 2 weeks but it is still very cold here.
:) I can send you, but will surely get cold along the way. Did you have snow ? The deep snow is something that I like very much, but snow rarely visits this place.
Yes, I get deep snow but this year we didn't get as much as we usually do. Only a total of 8 inches so we were lucky. We usually get blizzards and many feet of snow. I hate it!!! But I do love summer.