Late Red Admiral Egg Laying

[Paul Harfield]

Yesterday I found a spot where 2 female Red Admirals were actively laying eggs. I watched as many were laid. When I checked the Nettles to confirm that laying had actually occurred I found that many of the fresh nettle tips already had other Red Admiral eggs on them in addition to the freshly laid ones, so there were many. This was quite a large patch of lush Nettle regrowth. I will try and keep tabs on these eggs/larvae and see how things develop.

I just wondered how unusual this is? I appreciate it is unusually mild, but is this event recorded regularly at this time of year?

Any comments appreciated.

[essexbuzzard]

It is,to my mind,very uncommon. Nettles die dovn to the ground as soon as the first air frost arrives,which would leave any caterpillars with nothing to eat.

The future for these eggs seems bleak.