Friday, August 29, 2014

Swiss Update

In answer to Dennis, below, it's difficult to give a useful comparison because I have only searched on readily accessible sallows, in places I can easily check on my daily dog-walk. Of 12 eggs originally found, the tally is: 10 hatched (the remaining two are dead), 3 cats gone awol, 1 cat known dead and 6 still in the pink of health (3 1st instar and 3 2nd instar, as of today). I subsequently found another second instar cat, so I am presently keeping tab on 7 cats in total. They are (as photographed this morning):

Brahmā:

Sarasvatī:

Varuṇa

Indra

Trijaṭā

Vibhīṣaṇa

Sītā

Poor old Rāma was eaten by something a couple of days ago - so he's the one I know is dead:

The egg that I found eaten on August 10th is still intact on its leaf, nearly three weeks later:
(Aug 10th)

(today, 29th August)

Et voilà! It remains to be seen how many of these I will be able to follow into hibernation!

Guy


1 comment:

dennis said...

thanks Guy;
well, it is obviously better than in the uk.
We will be in Switzerland from 5th to 16th Sept in Basel, and I shall visit my 'old wood' there, which was such a happy hunting ground for iris larvae from 1981 until 2002 when we left