Marsh fritillary larvae

We spent the morning stumbling through a bog, looking for the larval webs of the rare Marsh Fritillary butterfly. It was worth the effort as around twenty five webs were found and they all had plenty of larvae. They are found on Devil’s Bit Scabious plants, where they remain as caterpillars until next spring. They then pupate, and emerge as beautiful butterflies in early summer. It’s all a bit precarious as they might be trodden on, or munched by stock. We will keep an eye on them and look forward to seeing them transformed next year!
This afternoon we had planned a barbecue but the weather rather let us down, so we ate it indoors. That’s the end of summer up here in the North then!