Do Butterflies remember being Caterpillars?

Commitments and circumstances have conspired to keep me away from 'blogging' for, well too long really. But, as John Lennon famously said "Life's what happens whilst you're busy making other plans" I may have paraphrased him there but it was something very similar anyhow.

I mentioned in an earlier posting that I had some comma butterfly larvae that I was rearing and that I would do an update on their progress. This blog entry will attempt to fill you in on everything that's happened in the past few weeks concerning the little beasties.

It was late August when I acquired the larvae (Caterpillars) and at that stage, I would guess they were probably only first or second instars and no more than a few millimetres in length.

I collected lots of Hop, one of their favourite food-plants and they seemed happy enough and soon grew to a respectable size and with each moult, became more elaborately coloured.

Click on any photo for a larger view

By the time September arrived, they were pretty much fully grown at about 35mm.

I had noticed that although these were all from the same batch of eggs, they progressed at very different rates and some seemed almost ready to pupate at the same time as others were not even to the stage of a final moult. When I say, final moult, I am discounting the fact that the act of pupation is in itself a 'moult' and therefore should really be considered as the last one.

The first signs of imminent pupation in the larger caterpillars was when I observed a real increase in food intake. They seemed to be getting through the hops at an alarming rate and even worse, the evidence was there for all to see (and me to clear up) from the other end of the larva!

On September 7th, the first one left the area where it had been feeding for the past weeks and climbed to a stem some way above the leaves and attached itself by the 'Cremaster' (a cluster of minute hooks) in the classic, head-down position.

It remained in this position, motionless, apart from the odd twitch for sometime. On the following day at around 2pm it began to twitch again and the pupation proper had begun. I suppose it was around 26 hours from the first signs to the completion of the process.

This is around 10x faster than actual speed.

The body that's revealed when the caterpillar sheds it's skin for the last time, is the pupa or chrysalis. It no longer feeds of course but will still twitch in response to threats but is otherwise 'sessile'.
At first it's soft and skin-like but soon hardens and it's this shell that protects the butterfly whilst it transforms.

This stage lasts around 2 weeks for the comma butterfly but can vary greatly for other species. The pupa is light in colour at first...

        ... but darkens over time until it looks like this 

I won't go into the whole business of just what happens in complete metamorphosis because I touched on it in an earlier posting, but the complete transformation is known as 'Holometabolism' and I've heard it described as a kind of re-cycling! It's not the worst analogy I've heard. If you drop a plastic bottle into a re-cycling bin, it gets melted down and reformed as an entirely different shape.That's close to what's happening here.

The next stage to look out for as an indicator of the final steps towards emergence is a change in colour from the dark. almost black that they've acquired, to something that at last seems to reveal the amazing process that been happening, unseen for the past 2 weeks or so; the very clear sighting of the colours of the adult comma butterfly wings that are now showing through the walls of the pupa.
Confirmation that the journey is almost complete. This is what it's all been building to, the final countdown has begun! Nature is about to dumbfound me yet again.

The little video that follows, although isn't the best quality or colour, and does have some very 'rural' editing (I don't have great software for editing movies is my excuse), but is never the less the result of many hours spent caring for and observing these insects and what it shows is something that few have been privileged to witness.

Complete metamorphosis is nature at it's wide-eyed,gob-smacking, amazing best! Not very literary, I agree but sometimes less is more?

And so it was that 17 days after the first larva became a pupa/chrysalis and just 7 days following the final larva's pupation, I was lucky enough to be there and watch in awe as a beautiful comma butterfly made it's entrance...

I wish that I could find a way to share this as the HD-Movie that it was videoed in but I've had to reduce both size and quality to get it to display here. I intend to work on this for future videos and if anyone knows of a way to display them at a larger size/quality, I'd be happy to hear from you.

I was on a high for sometime having watched this action and leaving aside the complete joy at witnessing it, I have learned so much at the same time.

It had no idea for instance that the pupal shell is forced open by the butterfly using its feet. The wings were wrapped around the insect, again, I had no inclining that was the case.

What struck me above all else though, was the proboscis; it seemed  to be 'unfurled' and stretched the length of the body. Only when the butterfly had struggled free of the shell did it then recoil like a spring.

Some recent studies have shown it may be possible that butterflies can remember some of their lives as caterpillars.

When caterpillars were conditioned to avoid specific smells (did you know caterpillars could smell?) they seemed to remember to keep away from those scents as adults.

Meconium

During the emergence of the butterfly from the pupa, there is a substance secreted that looks for all the world as if it is blood. It isn't and there's no cause for alarm.

In biology, meconium describes the metabolic waste product from the pupal stage of an insect that is expelled through the anal opening of the adult upon eclosion from the pupa. 

Adult Butterflies are not able to fly until their wings gain blood circulation and completely unfold; this usually takes 1-3 hours depending on the type of butterfly and of course, at this stage they are very vulnerable.

I took lots of photographs of the adult butterflies before releasing them in local woods. It was great to feel that I was doing something to help protect and conserve the population, especially in light of the fact that this year was particularly poor locally for commas. The weather has been superb for late insects and I'm sure they'll feed-up on whatever they can find before hibernating through the winter to emerge as breeding insects next spring.

I'll add some more pictures in my next posting, but for now here's one of the adult that I followed right through from caterpillar to adult butterfly.

Until the next time then...

Comma Butterfly (Polygonia c-album)

"Ugly brute, nasty fly"

 You might remember that in my last blog update I wrote about how I had found some late Peacock butterfly caterpillars, and was wondering just why they were still around quite late in the season? Well, I may have an answer now, and it’s quite sinister.

The caterpillars all without exception made it as far as pupating, it was then, well, shortly after, that things got a little freaky!

Rather than the beautiful adult butterflies that I was expecting to emerge from the chrysalis', one by one, what you might describe as 'maggots' began to emerge.

Here's the progression from healthy chrysalis to what I am calling a maggot (more on that in a bit), and then eventually a pupa.

Now I apologise if this gets a bit wordy, but it is quite complicated and I have tried my best to abridge my original jottings to be as concise as possible.

It seems that this is not the work of a parasitic wasp, but a Tachinid fly: namely 'Sturmia bella.' A Tachinid fly that most sources state was first discovered here in the UK in 1998/9.

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Having seen that the Tachinid fly maggots/larvae emerged from the chrysalises and not the caterpillars, I was intrigued to know whether these flies parasitised the caterpillars themselves, or the pupae. Of course, if the answer was that the caterpillars were affected in this way, then why did the fly larvae allow the caterpillars to grow to maturity and then pupate before emerging?

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Then...how about the mechanics of it; do the Tachinid flies lay eggs directly on to the caterpillars? I have never seen any with eggs present myself. Do Tachinids have some kind of ovipositor that allows them to inject eggs into the caterpillars or even the pupae?

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So many questions: I was determined to try and find the answers, or at least some of them, myself. It transpired that none of these things were relevent to what actually happened. More on that in a moment, but let's take a break and consider something less gruesome shall we?

Take a look at this next photograph...

It looks like a couple of different species of woodlice doesn't it? Well the one on the right is a woodlouse. The other one, on the left is not 'Oniscidea' (Woodlouse) at all, but 'Lonchoptera' a Pointed-wing Fly larva.

Yes, strange as it may seem this little critter found in leaf-litter will eventually become a fly.

Come with me now if you will, into the world of micro-photography. 

Actually, I am not too sure this is micro, because I think that refers to anything that is 20x life-size or more, and I have not calculated the magnification here. 

There's not as much definition as I would have liked actually, because I used my (broken) MP-E65 lens with a 1.4 convertor at one end, and a reversed 18mm lens at the other. But it does show you just how amazingly beautiful a butterfly wing is at high magnification. 

Just the thought of nature having to create every one of those individual scales whilst the transformation is taking place within the chrysalis blows my mind.

Alright then, let's ditch the glamorous in favour of the grizzly and get back to the story I began this update with. It took a lot of searching/research to find answers to my questions, questions that perhaps I should have already known the answers too, but I just didn't and as I always say, 'never be afraid to admit you don't know'. 

In fact the Tachinid fly Sturmia bella may be partly responsible for the decline in  the Peacock butterfly population: it has certainly been blamed by some for the decline in the Small Tortoiseshell butterfly, which it also parasitises.

Here's a photograph I took of one that I saw emerge from its pupa...

And so, although some of these flies do lay eggs on caterpillars, held in place by a kind of glue; and some do have a modified ovipositor that allows them to inject an egg directly into the host, this species does neither of those things.

This particular fly has an even more ingenious method: it lays its eggs on nettle leaves knowing that they will get ingested by the Peacock caterpillars as the feed.

The Sturmia bella larvae then develop within the caterpillars and emerge just after the caterpillar pupates, killing the pupae in the process.

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I have read from several sources now that at least 80-90% of Peacock caterpillars fall victim to attack by Tachinid flies. WOW! only 20% at best survive to become adults: and even that fact is assuming they don't get predated by birds etc.

After all, it's just nature doing what nature does right? Everything happens for a reason. It's all part of the ecology of the natural world; things balance out...

r

 

Now there is a guy by the name of Patrick Barkham, who writes for The Guardian newspaper on natural history, who would do well to remember these facts.

In an article he had published about Sturmia bella, he wrote the following:

 Sturmia bella (how the person who named this ugly brute could call it beautiful is beyond me), is a species of parasitic fly.

This nasty fly was recorded for the first time in Britain in Hampshire 11 years ago.

Ooooh! That insensed me!

He just doesn't get it does he. Yet here he is professing to be a nature lover and somebody who understands the complicated life-cycle of insects and bugs. He has awards for his writing from the Royal Society of Literature! 

Ugly brute! Nasty fly!

Give over Patrick, we can't all be the pretty little butterflies you love so much - that doesn't make us less worthy! We don't parasitise caterpillars using some kind of absurd Machiavellian  style, evil plot. Come to think of it, we probably don't even know what we are doing is wrong, we are just pre-programmed to behave in this way to survive, to continue as a species. We have no more control over our actions than your precious butterflies. You of all people should know this?

I'll just add that I have emailed the guy at his newspaper for a comment, I will let you know if he responds.

Was it Aristotle who said 'The more you know, the more you know you don't know'? Or was that Joey Essex! I think it must have been Aristotle, because he was the founder of the Lyceum after all, and Joey Essex knows nothing about West End theatres (smiley face).

The point is that it's a truism: I am constantly adding to my knowledge of the natural world, only to find yet more that I don't know. Take these next couple of images for instance...

 

In fact, let's add another...

I have very little idea about just what any of these are; and this was from only one day. All I can tell you about the top 'thing' is that it was found on thistle and was actually moving!

The second photo is of something that I found under a willow leaf. A pupa/cocoon of some kind perhaps? 

The final image looks to me like it could possibly be a fungus-infected Click beetle larva, but I just cannot be sure. 

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Time for the sleeping sheep photo I think...

Something old, found something new!

 It's been a while since I updated my blog, but then as we know...time....

 FLIES!

So, just a few of the many flies I have seen around lately. There are a couple of Dagger flies (Empididae) and a Bluebottle, but not sure what species that spotted one I spotted is. Probably Anthomyia species?

I've seen quite a number of these tiny froghoppers now; the ones that make the 'Cuckoo-spit' froth. But I have never until now seen one inside just one large bubble!

I was only speaking to somebody the other day about how, after so many years bug-hunting, it becomes trickier to find something new to you. Especially if like me, you are confined to the same area for most of the time. But that's exactly what I did recently when I came across this next bug. 

What made it even more pleasing in a way, was that for all my searching of the fields, woods and orchards I do locally, this was found on the doorframe of my house! 

Oh yes...what is it? Well, it's a Bordered Shieldbug (Legnotus limbosus). Only around 4.5mm and associated with bedstraw (Galium), widespread in Southern Britain apparently, but unobtrusive, as it burrows into the loose soil at the base of plants.

Legnotus limbosus

Here's another thing you don't see everyday of the week!

 Oh yes...I forgot the obligatory warning:

Now when I first saw this with the naked eye, I couldn't actually decipher exactly what was happening. Be honest JJ...you couldn't even tell if it was one or two spiders!

Anyway, I knew that spiders exhibit strange ways of mating and so a little research proved that this is what is taking place. These are two Pardosa (Wolf spiders) caught 'In flagrante delicto'. Although I am sure there was no wrong doing involved: at least I would like to think not. Another first for me.

More spiders now! Why? Well because I rarely get to see and photograph the male of the species: this particular species anyhow. This is a male Zebra Jumping Spider.

Just look at the chelicerae on this bad boy! 

(The chelicerae are a spider's jaws.  They are located on the very front of a spider.  Every spider has a pair of chelicerae, and they are tipped with fangs.  Chelicerae are filled with muscles, and are used to hold prey while the spider injects venom.)

Those are the black 'stalks' between the front legs that you can see. They are so large in this species that the pedipalps have had to be elongated.

(Like the chelicerae, a spider's pedipalps are part of its mouth, and are located just between the chelicerae and first pair of legs. Pedipalps are jointed, and look somewhat like small legs. They are not used like legs, though.  Instead, they are more like antennae: pedipalps help the spider sense objects that it encounters.  Some spiders also use their pedipalps to shape their webs and to aid in prey capture and feeding.

Pedipalps are used by male spiders to transfer sperm to female spiders.  In fact, you can usually distinguish a male spider from a female because of the male's enlarged pedipalps).

1. 

How many spiders? Ah but, I wanted to include this one for three reasons. Firstly, the magnificent camouflage abilities of this Crab sider (Or flower spider as it sometimes gets called). Secondly, just look at the size of its prey: that bee is quite a meal for it. And lastly, erm, what was the last reason? Oh yes! This is the species that can change colour to match the background.

So what is the reason for yet another spider collage then JJ? 

Well how about, its my blog so I can do what the hell I like?

However, I do think I am savvy enough to realise that without you dear reader, I would be wasting my time writing these updates, and so with that in mind, this will be the last of the arachnids....for now. 

I think this may be a Sac spider? But I am not the world's expert on these creatures: until I became an adult (oh yes I am), I was frightened of them myself. My mother, God bless her instilled that in me.

Will a cute weevil make amends? Shame, because here is one...

During a whistle-stop visit to Norfolk recently, I got a chance to spend a little time at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen. Unfortunately, I was too early for the meadow area to be open, and also for the fabulous Swallowtail butterflies. I still managed a few bug photos though...

I'd love to get back there sometime for a more detailed, elongated visit, but I don't think it will be this year. 

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Do I have anything further to add to this blog update? You bet your sweet bippy I do: you might remember this (link) post from Jan 6th of this year? It concerned caterpillars I had found in my garden. I was pretty confident after some research they were of the Buff-ermine moth. Well, I can now confirm that as being correct, because they have begun to emerge...

Beautiful little moths aren't they.

Meanwhile, still in my little garden...

The Speckled bush crickets are starting to appear.

And this has to be the biggest Hoverfly larva I have ever seen: certainly, the longest...

That aphid needs to be careful too, because the larva will feed on them, in fact, they love to!

A couple of tiny hoppers I found on willow. I think I may have seen this species before, but unsure as these are the smallest I have ever photographed. Maybe first instars.

A trip to Trumpton (part 2)

People have been asking me, am I glad to be home? The answer I give is, yes and no. It's bitter-sweet. I love the closeness and familiarity of the UK. I love how intimate our countryside is by comparison with the states. Flying over my home county of Kent demonstrated just how 'green and pleasant' it still is, despite it appearing to be a concrete jungle at eye level.

There is, or at least appears to me, to be an urgency about life in California that isn't happening here (yet), even the dog walkers and mothers out walking their babies in strollers, are not walking at all, but running.

Yet, I did love so much about the west coast. I am already missing those huge, open spaces where I felt like a (wimpish) Crocodile Dundee, not knowing quite what I might discover, and how dangerous it might prove to be. Americans seemed much more open to stopping to chat with you and would regale you with tales such as..."Did you hear about the 74 year old guy who got air-lifted to hospital after being bitten by a rattler?"

At an amazing place I had heard about (and so of course wanted to visit) close to Santa Cruz, where the monarch butterflies all congregate to pass their winter; although there were none to be seen when I arrived of course, I bought this field guide to American spiders...

The author describes how he overcame his fear of spiders by taking a 5-day, field school class in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and asks that others try to overcome their own fears, and even help to protect them... 

In case this proves tricky to read should you be viewing my blog on a phone or tablet, it says that "Too many people fear these beneficial creatures. Spiders need human friends to educate others and protect them from being needlessly killed."

And so, with that mantra in my head, I shall do my part here by sharing a few of the photographs that I took. You can educate yourself a little by trying to look at these pictures rationally...can't you? Ok then...bugger off for a moment whilst those with an open mind do so, and I will see you back here post 'spidergate'...

Or....you could lock yourself away in a cupboard somewhere and spend the next few minutes giggling to yourself like a little schoolgirl about the fact that there is a bird-turd spider!

Phidippus audax

Phidippus audax, commonly called bold, or daring jumping spiders, range in size from around 13 to 20 millimeters. That is much bigger than our largest salticid here in the UK, the fence-post jumping spider: which is about 10 millimeters in body length. These spiders have been known to jump from 10 to 50 times their own body length, which they achieve by suddenly increasing the blood pressure in the third or fourth pair of legs. Like most jumping spiders, P. audax tends to prefer relatively open areas to hunt in, as they actively seek and stalk prey and do not build webs to catch food.

I was trying to be clever and get a natural light shot of this one, but it was late in the day when light was poor.

Phididppus johnsoni, or Johnson jumping spider, or even as I like to call them 'JJ' spiders, are one of the largest and most commonly found jumpers of North America. Sometimes (wrongly) confused with the venomous red back spider. They quickly became one of my personal favourites and I would always be on the lookout for them on my walks. Sometimes the abdomen can be bright red; the females, as in my first picture here, have a black stripe on the abdomen. 

Phididppus johnsoni (f)

Phididppus johnsoni (m)

From the largest, to what must surely be some of the smallest jumping spiders I have ever seen...

I have not been able to get to species level with either of these yet but neither was more than 5mm in length.

This next little gallery is  of the crab spiders that I photographed, well, some of them...

Incidentally, that first crab spider is Misumena vatia, or the goldenrod spider. I read that they sometimes get called banana spiders too, because of their striking yellow colour. In fact, these spiders have a real clever trick that helps with camouflage whilst sitting on goldenrod, or any other flower: any other flower that happens to be white, yellow or green that is, because they have the amazing ability to change between these colourways. Like this...

That's probably more than enough arachnids for one update and so let's move on to something that might appeal more shall we. 

This raccoon was living in one of the large parks, where people are actually feeding them. Usually nocturnal animals, they are encouraged into the daylight by easy pickings. 

Raccoons are apparently noted for their intelligence: studies show that they are able to remember the solution to tasks for up to three years.

A weevil threesome

And I thought I was enjoying the sunshine!

I didn't see too many butterflies but there seemed to be several species of skipper butterflies around. I think this one could be a Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus)

Perhaps the only wasp I spotted (no ID as yet)

This next find was something of a moment for me: I would not have seen it at all had I not decided to lift a largish stone to see what, if anything, was beneath...

Potato Bug - Jerusalem Cricket - Child of the Earth: Take your pick, all of these names refer to this insect. Despite their name, Jerusalem crickets aren’t native to Jerusalem, and they are in fact mainly found in the western half of the United States. (Incidentally, they aren’t true crickets either.) They can be found throughout Arizona, New Mexico, and all along the Pacific coast of the country, being found all the way from British Columbia down to Baja California and many other parts of Mexico. Habitat wise the Jerusalem cricket mainly lives in underground burrows, but they can be found above ground in warm damp places.

Jerusalem crickets can grow up to two and a half inches long, and they have long spear-like legs that they dig into soil with. 

I did lift a few other stones, as well as some bark, and you can discover what else I found lurking beneath in my next USA update. 

A couple more photos then before I bring this already overlong update to a close...

Anthrenus species - Carpet Beetle

And finally this photo of an American politician.....sorry! I mean this reptile: a  Western Fence Lizard that seemed to be omnipresent: again, I don't mean this actual lizard you understand, rather this species of lizard. 

Phew! I apologise profusely for dragging you all the way down here to the eventual end of this humongous entry; and after starting with all those spiders too. I am forever in your debt for having stuck with it...you did stick with it didn't you? Yes, you must have done, or you couldn't be reading this. If there is anything I can do for you (sans lending you hard currency) then do please let me know. 

I am away now to dowse my laptop-sore eyes with Optrex. You have a lay down in a darkened room followed by a cup of green tea, and before you can say Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper, all will be well with the world once more. 

'Keep it real, peace out'