A dark green fritillary (aglaya perlemorvinge) and my second red-tailed bumlebee (steinhumle) on my Buddleja and Clematis vitalba (old man’s beard….not me!)
If you grow parsnip (pastinakk) for seed, you may have come across the parsnip moth or parsnip webworm (Depressaria radiata) as it can make an impact on seed harvest as it makes a silk structure amongst the inflorescences. Here it’s on its other important host, hogweed (Heracleum spp.) which I’m also letting flower for the seeds (golpar spice).
Making nettle water (fertiliser) this afternoon and I checked if there were any butterfly / moth larvae under the leaves, but I missed one and this beauty floated to the surface along with some tiny bugs. It’s the larva of the Comma butterfly (Hvit C). I moved the larva back onto a nettle plant…
Comma butterfly (Hvit C) caterpillar emerging from the nettle water..it may yet make it to a butterfly
Comma butterfly (Hvit C) caterpillar back on a nettle plant
A comma butterfly (hvit C) has been hanging out in the garden the last few days and its favourite perch is an area covered with newspapers. Is it checking the punctuation?
Brimstone butterflies (sitronsommerfugl) have become much more common on the other side of the fjord in recent years and I saw one in the garden for the first time in 2009. I thought this would be a regular occurrence but it took another 11 years before the next one turned up yesterday feeding on lesser celandine (vårkål) in my forest garden. This reminded me that I’ve also recorded the brimstone moth (sitronmåler) here, in my living room on 25th January 2014! 31st May 2020: A second one turned up, on Lunaria annua (honesty)
Brimstone moth:
31st May 2020: A second brimstone butterfly turned up, here on Lunaria annua (honesty):
With only a few inflorescences left on my Buddleja plants, the red admiral and painted lady (tistelsommerfugl) butterflies are transferring their attentions to other flowers in the garden, notably and most importantly Eupatorum cannabinum (hemp agrimony / hjortetrøst, seed of which came original from the banks of the River Itchen in Hampshire). Other flowers of choice at the moment are Anise hyssop (Agastache), Monarda and Marigold.
In the first video, the Red Admiral defends its hemp agrimony flower against a bumblebee!
…and a few other pollinators:
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
