Sign in

David Lees

@microlepidoptera.bsky.social
3 followers 2 following 7 posts
PostsRepliesMedia
David Lees @microlepidoptera.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Although Coralroot is not generally acknowledged to be a foodplant in the UK, Orange-tips seem to preferentially utilise it where it is present. Nearby I did not even find larvae (except outside the wood) on Jack-by-the-Hedge (Garlic Mustard), Alliaria petiolata.
000
David Lees @microlepidoptera.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
26 May. As a cannabilistic species there is at most one larva per plant! Then they proceed to eat the bulbils! The eaten parts are white. Here is a full grown caterpillar, about an inch long.
000
David Lees @microlepidoptera.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
18th May - Orange-tip larva finishing off Coralroot pods
000
David Lees @microlepidoptera.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
But can the larvae actually develop on this spindly plant, whose magnificence is gone by late May? The plant later bears up to four rather pathetic green pods, but can also reproduce via the deep purple 'bulbils' which drop off and grow into new plants
000
David Lees @microlepidoptera.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
In the Spring exuberance of a Chilterns wood, a female Orange-tip has laid her orange egg, near the bottom of the image. The plant is the beautiful Coralroot, Cardamine bulbifera, for which the area is a UK hotspot, for this rare ancient woodland plant.
000
David Lees @microlepidoptera.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Moths book new version
The new 2025 version of our Moths book is out! This has a completely revised end table with updated classification and Lepidoptera diversity figures to family level. At the latest count there are now 140 moth families worldwide with approximately 154,707 species (173,689 Lepidoptera in all including butterflies).
020