Yellow admirals flourishing

May 2025

Whilst the red admirals aren't doing well in the garden, the yellow admirals are flourishing. The butterfly, which I blogged about laying eggs, came back several times, laying more eggs each time on the nettles by the house.

I did put some eggs and caterpillars in the castles, but the threat from predators has lessened with the arrival of the cooler weather so the majority were left on the nettle pots.

On a sunny day like today there is plenty of activity. Caterpillars are different sizes from the staggered egg laying visits.

Eating up a storm

Some are busily munching or going off to moult, but I suspect some of the larger caterpillars are looking for a safe place to change into chrysalis. We only have a couple of weeks left of autumn and then we are into the winter months. NZbutterfly.info say that it will take at least 25 days for the yellow admirals to pupate during the winter, but they need a settled and fine day to eclose to allow their wings to dry so they won't emerge during bad weather and there's a good amount of that during our winter. Basically I have no idea when I''ll see them as adult butterflies, but they'll be worth the wait.