Large Tortoiseshell life cycle video

[Vince Massimo]

A wonderful 14 minute video showing the life cycle of this species. Filmed entirely in the wild in France by VarWild.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhrTWN_FXJw

Thanks go to Roger Gibbons for drawing it to our attention.

[PhilBJohnson]

Super Content.
It is videos like this, that could help us better understand the Large Tortoiseshell in England in the past and the butterflies decline in the UK as a resident, rather than a migrant
Bring back disease resistant Elms or was that a "red herring" regarding the butterflies decline?
I particularly liked this link:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... -butterfly

"The trouble, as Oates points out, is that our knowledge of this butterfly's lifestyle has been wiped out: the collectors who remember large numbers from the 1940s are long dead. No one knows what the caterpillar prefers to eat in Britain – it can be found on trees including elm, willow, aspen, cherry and fruit trees – and the chrysalis is almost invisible, resembling a dead leaf."

[PhilBJohnson]

The English Resident Species or Strain of Large Tortoiseshell (not dependant on migration).
First we had two different species of Wood White that could not easily, outwardly be identified, apart from their evolved habitat choices.
Then we had the reintroduction of the Chequered Skipper from Belgium stock because it's evolved habitat or life cycle preferences, were supposed not to be as suitable in England, from Scottish stock.

I spoke to a lady today who remembered the pre-1950s Large Tortoiseshell in England.
Do the BBC hold archive footage of this butterfly that might help more people understand why we lost it from our English Landscape?

[PhilBJohnson]

Another theory as to this butterfly species rapid decline in the United Kingdom, was in relation to the species evolved identity, as egg laying in clumps or clusters.
Many birds, including non native, invasive species, were thought to have had a predatory routine of going back to the same final caterpillar instar (largest meal) locality, once food was found, which normally meant that caterpillars that grouped together, were more likely to have had evolved defence (such as distaste for example), rather than camouflage.

Might have a non-native, invasive, small parasitic wasp or fly been transported, during multi-cultural plant (flora) travel, to the United kingdom and been widely unnoticed, in a plant collecting age before pandemic?

[Lee Hurrell]

What a wonderful video.