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Here at the farm, there’s a small open area in a section of the poplar woods. The sunshine washes over the vegetation for most of the daylight hours. Any time that I want to find butterflies, that’s the place to go. Yesterday, as I walked the section of trail passing through this open area, two Red Admiral butterflies (Vanessa atalanta) were whirling through the air, playing tag, and occasionally landing for a moment before resuming the chase. I managed to snap a few photos by waiting patiently beside one of the spots where they repeatedly perched (click on image for larger view).

Also seen in a patch of sunlight was this Virginia Ctenucha caterpillar (Ctenucha virginica) moving along the trail. As you may remember, back on May 1st, I posted photos of one of these caterpillars in the process of molting. As you can see from the photo below, the caterpillar looks considerably different now. Not only is it larger, but it has lost its black markings, and is now just the yellow with white head and tail that was the background colour during its younger days. We’ve had quite a bit of cool, damp weather between May 1st and now, so I suspect most of the caterpillars I saw earlier in May, have been curled up somewhere and not doing a lot of eating until the past few days. Under optimum conditions, I expect they could pass through several instars (larval stages between molts) quite rapidly before reaching the final stage ready to cocoon.

Tags: Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta, Virginia Ctenucha, Ctenucha virginica