Painted Lady caterpillar

[Mikhail]

10 Jan 2020

This afternoon I found a barely half grown Painted Lady caterpillar on Echium pininana in the Boscombe cliff gardens above Honeycombe (sic) chine. I had earlier found a virtually fully grown larva on this food-plant on 3 November. This Echium is one of several gigantic species endemic to the Canary Islands, and goes by the name of Giant Viper-s Bugloss. It is endemic to the island of La Palma. I wonder if a Painted Lady larva has been found alive in the UK in January before now. The winter here has been very mild so far, with a clump of Nasturtiums still untouched by frost in a front garden about half a mile from the sea.

M.

[Vince Massimo]

Hi Mikhail,

That's a great find and the latest wild record I have seen for the British Isles. Based on the structure of the spines, I'm inclined to call this an early 4th instar. This winter has been exceptionally mild, which combined with the local micro climate down there in Bournemouth and the shelter provided by a plant of that size, makes for a perfect situation. I found some 5th instars at Lancing on the Sussex coast on 28th November and have been monitoring a handful of larvae in my garden after collecting them as 1st instars on 28th September. The last of these died today, but I also have two surviving pupae (one of which has coloured-up).

Painted Lady larva 5th instar - Crawley, Sussex 1-Jan-2020

I will report the progress of these and would be grateful if you could also monitor your latest find if possible.

Vince

[Vince Massimo]

Sadly, none of my larvae or pupae survived the winter months. Whilst this outcome was not unexpected, they lasted much longer than in other years.

Mikhail - I have added your images to the Species-Specific Album. Thanks for posting them.

Vince