Red Admiral's admirable camouflage

A Red Admiral flew into the cherry tree as I was in the garden. I had seen where it had landed and how it positioned itself head down and as I looked for it I realised how wonderfully camouflaged, matching the colours and patterning of a branch. Can you spot it? If you can't I have cropped a photo at as slightly different angle, showing the antennae. I then made a sudden movement and the butterfly slightly opened its wings, exposing the red marks on its forewings (bottom photo). It had started to rain, and it was much cooler so the butterfly will probably spend the night roosting like that in the tree, well concealed from visual predators.

Red Admiral showing and hiding

 A fresh female Red Admiral basked on a sycamore trunk, probably with a full stomach after feeding on an early flowering buddleja nearby. It sat there wings outstretched, showing its bright, contrasting colours for a while, but then it decided it had enough and folded them, revealing its remarkably cryptic underside.

Larvae in a poo costume

Of all insect larvae I have come across, these have been the trickiest to spot. Red Lily Beetle adults were mating and laying eggs on my Asiatic lilies this afternoon. I was sitting next to the lilies and I was intent on spotting the larvae. It took a while. They look exactly like wet caterpillar poo. 

The bright orange eggs are laid in rows under the leaf, and when the larvae hatch they stay together and start eating the leaf where they have been born, their slimy droppings are deposited on their back, forming a faecal shield which grows in size with the larvae. The faecal shield disguises the larva, presumably helping to protect them from predators. When small, larvae fed on the underside of the leaf, leaving the upper leaf surface withered. As they grow they disperse from their siblings and they may move to the upper side of the leaf, eating the whole leaf or flowers as they grow. If they feel disturbed, they completely retreat inside their fecal shield, when they relax, their shiny black head and short legs are visible (above). The fully developed larvae drop to the soil where they make a white cocoon. There is a single generation a year, the new generation of beetles emerges and feeds before overwintering in the soil.

A string of lily beetle eggs

A cluster of young larvae - the leaf has been turned upside down to take the photo. The withered end of the leaf can be seen in the background

Now you see me, now you don't

I was walking home through the University woodland area in the afternoon when a large flying insect called my attention, a moth with bright pink hindwings and an erratic flight. It took a while to settle, and it did so on a tree trunk. When I got close I could not see it. I had spotted it when it had landed, so I took a few shots of the trunk, where was it? Can you see it?

and then I saw it. Thanks to it hindwings being slightly exposed.

It was a Red Underwing (Catocala nupta), a large noctuid which flies in August and September, and whose caterpillars feed on poplar and willow. It seems to be a rare species in the North, but it seems to be expanding in range. In the  NBN gateway it does not even appear in Hull.