Brilliant Butterflies

Spring has finally arrived and with it come flowers. And once we have flowers, we suddenly start seeing butterflies too. Butterflies love two things – flowers and sunshine!

Ireland has 32 resident and 3 regular migrant species. All butterflies have a four stage life-cycle; egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis) and adult butterfly. Some butterflies over-winter as adults (sleeping somewhere sheltered, like old barns) and some overwinter as pupa.

Green veined white on ragged robin

The green veined white butterfly in the above photograph would have emerged from a pupa that had over-wintered.

While the peacock butterfly in the photo below would have hibernated over winter as an adult. You can see that it’s colours are a little bit dull.

Peacock butterfly

These are the caterpillars of a peacock butterfly. The caterpillars feed on nettles.

 

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RESOURCES

Butterfly Craft

Butterfly craft

This is one of my favourite fun crafts. All you need is card, craft sticks, glue, pompoms, coloured pipecleaners, stickers

 

 

Colouring pages

Try this peacock colouring sheet or this tortoiseshell one.

 

Butterfly spotter Guides

Use this Nature Detective spotter guide to help you identify butterflies you see.

See also Wildlife Watch Guides

Both good for UK and Ireland

For online guide to butterflies of North America see here.

 

Butterfly Life Cycle

Learn all about the Butterfly Life Cycle here.

 

Web links

Butterfly Conservation Ireland

Irish Butterflies website

Butterfly Conservation UK

 

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