The English end of the tunnel has a few butterflies already (small tortoiseshell), there are lots of caterpillars eating their way through Oak leaves (Silk Moth) and others crawling on the nettles (Red Admiral). When I visited the butterfly tunnel this morning Donna (ARC) & Anne (Discovery Garden & Butterfly Tunnel Manager) pointed out some Caterpillars, as we looked at the caterpillar’s on the nettles we could see the tops of the nettles had been damaged.
The nettles have been snapped over on the ends by the caterpillars and then the clever caterpillars have used the drying leaves as cover to hide and pupate.
I will try and follow these clever insects, and keep you up-to-date with their life cycle.
Visit the Photo's gallery to see our focus group themes. Inside the Butterflies folder is a selection of images that shows the life cycle of the Chequered Swallowtail butterfly, through it's life process stages.
A very busy half term has left us feeling rather encouraged. Many children have visited the farm and been to our beautiful butterfly tunnel.
There are some really fascinating facts about butterflies and I was wondering who learnt anything new while in the poly tunnel.
who can tell me something about a butterfly?