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.