Colouring Up

Larvae are just beginning to colour up in the wild - one out of 8 seen today had started to change colour, the others were still in Lincoln green.  This is slightly behind the norm, but the weather has been mild.

There's a lot of rust, mildew, spots and assorted poxes on tree leaves this autumn, presumably because of the warm, moist summer.  On sallows, there's a lot of blackening on leaf tips and edges, which is displacing larvae off their favoured tips.  

Here's one of today's larvae -

Seemingly, throughout the Empire many sallows have blackened off badly, shedding leaves prematurely.