East Lothian Butterflies 2025 part 1

I collect the butterfly records from the East Lothian Countryside Rangers and about 40 volunteers. At the end of the season I put together an annual round-up that I send to the volunteers to let them see how their records fit into the big picture. Below is an edited version.

2025 was pretty dry and sunny in East Lothian, but there was often an easterly wind keeping the temperatures down. The general lack of rain and the wind caused the vegetation to dry up, particularly in coastal areas.

We had a couple of very early records. Firstly, a Speckled Wood that was seen on 15th January in Butterdean Wood. I can only assume that it had crawled into a nearby greenhouse as a caterpillar last autumn and was tricked into thinking that spring had arrived.

The next butterfly was a Small Tortoiseshell, which was seen on 28th February. Maybe this wasn't such a surprise as they spend the winter hibernating as adult butterflies, so can make an appearance on a mild day.

There was then a flurry of Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks on 6th March. Both species had a fairly average year, but at least Small Tortoiseshells bounced back from last year's low numbers.

There were a few Red Admirals seen in March, indicating that they may have survived the winter here. They went on to have an amazing year, with us recording about three times the average number.

The first Comma was seen on 15th March. They went on to have a great year, particularly later in the season, and I received the highest number of records since I started collating them in 2008.

A few days later a Painted Lady was spotted in North Berwick. They also had a good year, with 220 records - a big improvement on last year's 14! Their numbers can be really variable. I would suggest the normal annual average is under 100 records, but the figures are skewed by the 2019 invasion when I received 5395 records!

All four white species had an amazing year. For Orange Tips, Green-veined Whites and Large Whites it was by far the best year since I started recording the butterflies. 

Small Whites also had a fantastic year, way above average, but not quite as high a number as was seen in 2018.

Speckled Wood numbers picked up in April and they also had a very good year. I received records of 1608 of them, which is the second highest number since they reappeared in East Lothian in 2009.

Small Coppers had a fairly average year.

The same could be said for Wall Brown. Their numbers look fairly average, but when you look at when they were seen, they were almost exactly two weeks early and there was a small third generation towards the end of September, with the last one being seen on 7th November.

I will continue this on my next post.

Of Caterpillars and Chrysalises Part 2

Continued from my previous post.

I can’t believe the number of eggs I have found this year of Large Whites, Small Whites and Green-veined Whites. There have been a lot of adults flying around and my Nasturtiums have been covered in eggs. 

The Large White lays its eggs in batches on the underside of the leaves.

The other two species lay their eggs individually anywhere on the plant. They have also been laying eggs on a Rocket plant growing in our patio and on Bittercress and Garlic Mustard.

I tried to photograph some Large White eggs and various stages of their development as caterpillars, but there were so many different batches of eggs I couldn’t keep track of which were which.

There were so many caterpillars that some of the Nasturtiums were completely stripped of leaves. I tried to pick leaves from other plants, but discovered that most of them had new batches of eggs on them. So, I resorted to buying bags of Curly Kale to try to keep the caterpillars alive! I have never seen so many caterpillars!

Once they were ready to form chrysalises they crawled up the wall of the house to find a sheltered spot.

Unfortunately, a few were parasitized by Braconid wasps. Presumably the adults had laid eggs inside the caterpillars at some point and the larvae burst out of the chrysalises to pupate.

And the Bluetits learned where to look for the caterpillars, flying up to the wall and picking off the chrysalises. Even the chrysalises that I had thought were safe were picked off by wasps, biting into the chrysalis and managing to prize them off the wall! I was feeling a bit despondent, seeing so many chrysalises perish after I had put the effort in to save the caterpillars. 

However, I needn't have worried. One day I noticed a Small White butterfly emerging from under the Alpine trough. I had a look underneath the trough and there were several more Small White chrysalises under there.

During the late summer/early autumn there have been loads of Large Whites, Small Whites and Green-veined Whites flying around.

On 12th July I noticed a hutchisonii form of Comma laying eggs on the nettles behind my garage. I wasn’t able to look for the eggs for fear of being stung, but on the 7th August, I was walking past the garage when I spied a little face peeking out from below a nettle leaf. It was a Comma caterpillar.

I watched it for a few days and on the 10th August it formed a chrysalis.

Unfortunately, it is now the end of September and nothing has emerged from the chrysalis, so I fear it may have failed.

I was down in my meadow one day in August, when I noticed a nettle bouncing around. I couldn't understand why it was moving like that on a still day. On closer inspection I noticed that the top leaves were stitched together and on top of the leaves was a parasitic Ichneumonid wasp.

I chased the wasp away and investigated further and found a Red Admiral chrysalis inside the nettle leaves. A little later when I walked back the nettle was bouncing around again and the wasp was back. So I decided to pick the nettle and put it in a mesh cage. I thought that in a few weeks I would either have a Red Admiral or a number of wasps! Luckily it was a Red Admiral that emerged from the chrysalis about three weeks later.

I don't think I have ever known such a good year for finding caterpillars and chrysalises!

Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta

I am lucky enough to have a large floor-to-ceiling window in my study, which overlooks a weedy area of our woodland. I am often distracted from my work by a butterfly fluttering past and on quite a few occasions I have seen butterflies laying eggs there.

On the 1st July I spied a Red Admiral flitting about from nettle to nettle. I made a mental note of one nettle where it had landed and sure enough, when I looked later there was an egg.

I picked the nettle and popped it in a jar of water. The hole in the lid was only just large enough for the stem to fit through, so that the caterpillar can't fall in! On the 9th July the egg hatched, producing a little black caterpillar. It hung around on the small leaf the egg was laid on for a few days, but the leaf started to dry up, so I cut the leaf and put it onto a fresh nettle.

The caterpillar immediately climbed onto the fresh leaf and tried to stitch the edges of the leaf together. This was rather ambitious for such a small caterpillar. As it grew bigger it did manage to stitch the edges of the leaf together to form a tent. The caterpillar would spend all day inside its tent, only coming out at night to eat or construct a new tent. It was rare to see the caterpillar in the daylight during this time.

By early August it had reached a good size and after a period of frenzied eating I noticed that the caterpillar was hanging upside down inside its tent. On the 7th August I saw that it had formed a chrysalis.

The chrysalises have amazing metallic green marks on them.

On 21st August, I noticed that the chrysalis had darkened slightly, and I thought that the butterfly would be emerging in a couple of days. However, about an hour later I looked round to see a butterfly hanging from the leaf! 

It wasn't a particularly sunny day, but after a few hours the butterfly flew off to a nearby bush, to join the other Red Admirals feeding there.

So, this Red Admiral had been an egg for 9 days, a caterpillar for 29 days and a chrysalis for 14 days. I found another, much lighter, caterpillar in the nettles , which I put into a mesh cage on a nettle stem. A few days later it formed a chrysalis, but this one remained in that state for 21 days. It is interesting how much longer it took to emerge.

As I write this in the middle of September, there are still caterpillars and chrysalises on the nettles outside my window.  The number of butterflies has dropped over recent weeks, but Red Admirals have been really abundant. Last week I counted 67 of them on my Buddleias and I noticed a few days ago they are also feeding on Yew berries.

Red Admirals are usually the last butterflies I see each year, with them sticking around until the end of October. I presume they then fly south, but it always intrigues me that they stay here long after the first frosts.

Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta

On 22nd June I was working in my study when I notice a butterfly out of the corner of my eye. I am easily distracted that way, so looked round and saw it was a Red Admiral and it was inspecting the nettles right outside my window. I spotted it laying an egg and, as I have mentioned before, my study window looks out on the hen run, so I doubt any caterpillars would last long.

At lunchtime I popped out and picked the nettle that the egg had been laid on. I kept it in a jar of water with a hole punched through the lid. All of these photos were taken with my phone. This one was taken looking through a microscope.

Seven days later the egg hatched, but I couldn't find the caterpillar. After three days I spotted it in the young shoot at the top of the nettle stem. It stayed there for another five days in a sort of web it had made and once it had eaten most of the young leaves it moved to a larger leaf further down the stem, where it started constructing a tent.

I kept putting fresh nettle stems in the jar and I noticed that the caterpillar would spend the day inside its tent. The following morning I would find the tent completely eaten and a new tent formed on the new stem. This happened for a further 19 days during which I didn't see the caterpillar.

On the 25th July no new tent had been formed and I managed to see the caterpillar hanging in a characteristic J-shape inside the leaf tent. The following day it had formed a chrysalis and I was able to open up the tent to get a better look.

It remained as a chrysalis until the 8th August, when it emerged as a butterfly. Over the previous two days the chrysalis darkened and I was able to make out the pattern of the top sides of the wings. A couple of hours before it emerged I could see the abdomen section of the chrysalis lengthen slightly, however, I still managed to miss the actual point of emergence!

So, it was seven days as an egg, 26 days as a caterpillar and 13 days as a chrysalis.

This is an almost identical story to the Red Admiral egg that was laid in the hen run last year. On that occasion the egg hatched after only four days, it also remained as a caterpillar for 26 days and it remained as a chrysalis for 16 days.

Once its wings had dried I took the butterfly outside. It spent a while warming up in the sun, then took off and did a couple of laps of the patio before flying off to join the other Red Admirals on the Buddleia.

Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta

Last June on a lovely sunny day I noticed a Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta, flying around our hen run, landing on some young nettles, Urtica dioica, that I had previously cut down. Once it had gone I had a look at one particular nettle plant that it had been showing a great interest in and found an egg. Thinking that it wouldn’t have a chance of survival I picked the nettle and put it in some water in the house.

The egg was laid on the 25^th June and four days later I noticed that it had hatched. The caterpillar was a clear green colour with a black head and it remained in the smallest leaves at the top of the nettle, where it weaved a small silk shelter.

On 1^st July I noticed that the caterpillar had changed into the second instar and was now dark with small spines. It was now about 4mm long.

After that it was very difficult to see the caterpillar as it made itself a beautiful tent by nibbling through the nettle stem causing the top to flop over. It then wove the serrated edges of a leaf together to create a little chamber to live inside. It clearly ventured out at night and ate other leaves and on occasion would build itself a new tent.

On 23^rd July I noticed that it had woven itself a little silk pad and had started to hang from it in a J-shape in preparation for forming a chrysalis.

On 25^th July it had shed its skin and was now a chrysalis.

It remained like that until I noticed the colour of its wings became apparent through the chrysalis. It remained like this for a couple of days and then, despite it being in my study on the 10^th August it emerged into a beautiful butterfly while I wasn’t looking!

It was fantastic watching it go through the whole process from egg to adult butterfly. It was particularly thrilling watching it fly off once its wings had fully expanded and dried out. There were a lot of Red Admirals on our Buddleias later in the year and it would be nice to think that they were descended from this particular butterfly.

Back in June on the same day that I saw the Red Admiral laying and egg I also spotted a Painted Lady laying an egg on some Woodland Groundsel , Senecio sylvaticus. It was similar to the Red Admiral egg, but had more ribs. Sadly we had really heavy rain the following day and the egg was washed away. It would have been great to have reared it alongside the Red Admiral.