This year marked the second year with American Ladies Vanessa virginiensis. Our hostplants were more established, so I didn't find myself repeating last year's ritual of find Pearly Everlasting in the field every three days!
The new method for this year was to take small sections of Pussytoes Antennaria neglecta and root them in smaller pots. The former method was to simply add leaves to the container as needed; but this seemed to force the AL cats to make nests more frequently than they might do in nature. The new method allowed the cats to make nests in whole plants.
The method had mixed success. The major problem was that I inadvertently put a large cat in with several eggs and 1st instar cats. They all disappeared but one.
The overly hungry caterpillar...
The key to success seems to be to provide two plants per caterpillar.
JRC
Thursday, August 4, 2011
American Ladies
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