Apple Juice

Large and vividly marked this Red Admiral was feeding on the rotting fruit on the garden floor this afternoon.

For all it's brilliance and conspicuousness when gliding and wing flitting in flight, the underside of the wings are very well camouflaged when at rest to resemble dark bark in shades of mottled brown, grey and black.

The caterpillar feeds on nettles in the spring and lives then in a tent of leaves folded over and fastened together by silk. In abundance in woods, hedgerows, orchards and gardens they tend to die off in the winter with only a few surviving. Happily they teem north from the Mediterranean every year in May for us to enjoy.

Sorry about the commenting - difficult to keep on top of it at the moment.