Purple Emperor larvae have slowed right down, so the prospects of a late May start to the flight season are receding fast - though we are still on for an early June kick off, with everything depending on the weather over the next few weeks.
Cool nights have slowed them right down, making them miss out on their evening feed. Also, the East and North-East winds of late April stopped them feeding - PE larvae hate wind - and made several larvae change position. Many larvae spent the best part of a week changing skins to the 4th instar (L4).
Here's a mid-L4 larva -
There are a lot of Willow Sawfly Euura viduata larvae feeding on the sallows at present. They can mimic PE feeding damage. Beware. Here's one -
Onward! We are still heading towards an early and potentially very good PE season (depending on the weather...).
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