After a very successful first generation, it was much more difficult to find Small Tortoiseshell nests from the second brood. Some of those that we did find had mysteriously disappeared when we returned to collect them. The reason for these disappearances has still not been identified.

Could it be predation by birds, wasps, or spiders?

Six of our captive adult parasitoid wasps had emerged by yesterday, which means we can finally stop worrying so much about the rearing conditions! They all appear to be Phobocampe confusa, and all emerged as larvae at the end of June from Small Tortoiseshell hosts collected mid-June. The larvae formed puparia (cocoons) within a few hours of emerging and have stayed as puparia for a month. Adults emerging now are perfectly timed to attack the second generation of the Small Tortoiseshell. Now we just have to wait for the remaining 484 cocoons to hatch!

I will attempt to take photos to add here if I can get one of them to sit still for long enough!

Example of a large nest of Peacock caterpillars.

Caterpillar update  

We've had a busy few weeks collecting, feeding and monitoring Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock caterpillars. We've processed over 1000 with only about 20 left to monitor for parasitism or pupation. We are now in the period between the first and second generations of Small Tortoiseshells, and have only found one small nest of Peacocks in the past week so they might be drawing to a close.

We have collected six nests so far from the main study sites and a further ten are being monitored until they are ready for collection.