Butterfly & Nature Photography by Silvia Reiche
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Early spring

23/2/2019

0 Comments

 
Since more than a week we have spring temperatures and on the 15th I noticed the first butterflies of this year (three Brimstones). Normally I visit them early March but with this sunny weather I was curious if the caterpillars of the Glanville Fritillary would be already active. Yes they are!
Picture
Caterpillars Glanville Fritillary - Canon 7DMKII, tripod, remote release, 180 mm, 0,3 sec, F 13, ISO100
My old workhorse joined me as I did not read the manual of the Sony yet :-(. 
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Neverending story

26/9/2018

2 Comments

 
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Caterpillar Swallowtail - Canon 7DMKII, tripod, remote release, 180 mm, 1/5 sec, F 6.3 , ISO 100
Due to this fabulous summer, I found some caterpillars of the Swallowtail. First in July on a carrot field which was gathered the day after and second in August on fennel. I received some fresh fennel to feed them and when they were all almost grown and pupated I discovered a tiny little caterpillar which was just born....so the complete story continued. Last Monday evening I run out of food for the last caterpillar as my fennel is empty. I drove to a carrot field and found immediately a tiny little caterpillar. Although it was getting dark I searched on a place with high weed between the carrots (a sign that this piece of land was not treated with poison) and found 11 caterpillars: 
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As these caterpillars are very hungry and as I wanted to search for more caterpillars I drove to the carrot field this morning. Big machines were busy and the wilder part with weed was already completely gone.
How many swallowtails we would have in the Netherlands when some of the carrot field would not be gathered?
2 Comments

Parasitoid wasp of melitaea cinxia

11/3/2018

1 Comment

 
Exactly one week ago it was still winter with freezing temperatures and fresh snow. Last Sunday the snow melted and in the afternoon spring arrived. I've rarely experienced such a big difference!
Picture
Habitat Glanville Fritillary - Canon 7DMKII, beanbag, angle finder, 20 mm, 1/12 sec, F 11 , ISO 100
After some warmer days nature has awakened and I was glad that some caterpillar nests of the Glanville Fritillary survived winter. Unfortunately their enemies survived the winter too as around almost each nest I noticed a parasitoid wasp. 
Picture
Caterpillar nest - Canon 7DMKII, tripod, remote release, 180 mm, 1/10 sec, F 11, ISO100
Some of them were already busy infecting a caterpillar en some of them were sitting in the grass around the nest. I guess that it is no coincidende from mother nature that the wasps (I assume pteromalus puparum) have the same colours as the caterpillars...black with red eyes.
Picture
Parasitoid wasp (Pteromalus puparum) melitaea cinxia
1 Comment

True Love

14/8/2017

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After an absence of almost three weeks, I inspected my vegetable garden and found out that the cabbage area is a battlefield. In all kind of sizes I found caterpillars of the Large White and one caterpillar of the Small White.
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Eating any cabbage I can forget like every year.....I love this little creatures so the cabbage is for them. I must be content with some red tomatoes!
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To kill six birds with one stone

16/7/2017

1 Comment

 
Last year September, I discovered a stinging nettle place near a small road were I found five empty chryslises of the Comma Butterfly. Since april this year I almost inspected these nettles (six to eight stalks) weekly.

Last Friday I was there again with Wanda when I noticed that some leaves had eating marks. When I looked closer I saw a fat caterpillar of the Red Admiral. I inspected all the stalks and found three caterpillars of the Red Admiral and SIX​ caterpillars of the Comma Butterfly...some of them were eating together on one stalk. The caterpillars all had different stages and one looked more like an albino so I guess six females of the Comma Butterfly passed this spot and found it perfect for their offspring.

Since my own garden experience in 1999 (see metamorphosises) it was the first time that I found that much caterpillars together again!
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Picture
1 Comment

Discovery time

4/6/2017

2 Comments

 
Nature it's on her best at the moment! Next to birds, deers also butterflies giving 'birth' to the next generation. Wherever I look, I find caterpillars, their enemies and other little creatures!
Wanda (my shepard) hates them....actually not them but me walking slowly through the forest and searching for them. In almost every Alder Buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula) caterpillars are living:
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Caterpillar Euproctis similis
Picture
Chrysalis Brimstone
I also found some caterpillars of the Red Admiral and Comma Butterfly in my garden.
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Caterpillar Comma Butterfly
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Chrysalis Comma Butterfly
Unfortunately all the caterpillars of Red Admiral which I found in my garden were parasited. When I unfold the  nettle leaf I noticed an opening at one cocoon and a few minutes later I witnessed the emergence of a parasitoid wasp. The newborn wasp flew to a higher nettle leaf and allowed me one image before she flew away to search for new victims: 
Picture
Emergence Cotesia vestalis
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Parasitoid wasp - Cotesia vestalis
2 Comments

The Comma Battle

20/8/2016

2 Comments

 
At the moment it's caterpillar time outside! In the last two weeks during my walks with Wanda I found at least thousand caterpillars in two area's. Leading is the Map Butterfly (after 25 caterpillar nests I stopped counting them) followed by the Red Admiral (on almost every nettle plant I found a caterpillar). In my own garden I found at least 25 caterpillars of the Red Admiral and two caterpillar nests of the Map Butterfly. More by surprise I found one caterpillar of the Comma Butterfly and again I had the hope to finish my 'battle' which started in 1999 (see/read my chapter metamorphosises). Last year I had two caterpillars of this species but one was parasitized and the other emerged during the night. In 2014 I missed the emergence process as the butterfly was 'born' during the night. 
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So I was very happy with this new chance and very soon after I found the caterpillar he started to search for a good place to transform into a chrysalis.
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Unfortunately my Comma Battle will continue as this beautiful caterpillar was parasitized and an ugly larva hatched from my one and only comma chrysalis! 
2 Comments

Dutch Chameleon

12/8/2016

1 Comment

 
A few days before my holiday started (almost three weeks ago) I noticed three female Holly Blue butterflies on my two big Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) plants. In the evening I discovered one fresh egg and marked this place. When I returned last weekend, I found a caterpillar near the marked place and after the inspection of the complete plants I found a second caterpillar and four other empty eggs. Two days later I wanted to photograph the caterpillars but although the stem was marked, it took a long time before I found them back.....they had switched the stem and due to their 'simular to the flower' colour they were almost invisible.  
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Caterpillar Holly Blue - reddish
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Caterpillar Holly Blue - greenish
One caterpillar, the left one was eating between the pink flowers was coloured more red and the other one, the right one, was eating the green flowerbuds on the top of the stem and was more greenish. When the first caterpillar was ready to search for a nice place to pupate, his colour had changed again and between the leaves he was again not visible.
Although I know that nature is that clever, I'm impressed and fascinated again!
Picture
Caterpillar Holly Blue - brownish
1 Comment

The First Supper

5/6/2016

2 Comments

 
A lot of fennel was growing in the meadows of the accomodation in France and with a lot I mean hundreds of plants. So it was no surprise that the Swallowtail was a regular visitor and that the females were laying eggs. But when I liked to photograph an egg a few days later the egg was gone; instead I found some fat ants. I watched this proces, called nature, some days and decided to intervene. I took some fennel with yellow eggs and put it outside in the window-sill of the accomodation. Afer a few day, more by accident, I noticed a little dark spot and after I found my glasses I noticed that the dark spot was a hatching egg. With my MP-E 65 mm I could follow the birth but there was too much wind outside to photograph this proces. After the birth this tiny little caterpillar started to eat the egg shell and inbetween he took a break....time for me to make some photos. Ever tried to photograph something with a longer shuttertime on a fennel leaf?​
Picture
Caterpillar Swallowtail - Canon 7DMKII, tripod, remote release, 65 mm, 0,3 sec, F 16 , ISO 100
The leaves of fennel are always in motion. After some photos I relooked them in the screen of my camera and could see that the tiny caterpillar started in the choosen (higher) position and after some shots he was that low that I needed to change again the compositon. Fortunately I had enough time that day to repeat that proces again and again and again. I'm happy that I can add this young caterpillar (5:1 magnification) to my personal Swallowtail image collecion.
2 Comments

AH Moestuintje

14/8/2015

3 Comments

 
A little introduction for the non-Dutch people: AH is the abbreviation of Albert Heijn which is one of the biggest supermarket chain in the Netherlands. In February and March this year, for every 15 Euro, I received some vegetable seeds to create my own vegetable garden.

After a lot of caretaking, I now have a lot of tomatoes and all stages of all Dutch white species. Their favourite of all vegetable/cabbage plants is broccoli. They ‘adore’ the leaves and some caterpillars have no problems with devouring all yellow flowers of the broccoli. 
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Part of the caterpillars of the Large White (pieris brassicae)
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Egg of the Green-veined White (pieris napi)
A nest of about sixty caterpillars of the Large White I found in their third skin; a few days later I decided to take them inside and feed them on my kitchen table. 
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Caterpillar Large White (pieris brassicae) on broccoli
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Transformation Large White from caterpillar into chrysalis
After almost a week I found out that none of these caterpillars was infected by the White Butterfly Parasite (a wasp with the name Cotesia glomerata). That is a remarkable fact as normally a big part of the caterpillars is parasitised.
A second notable fact was that the caterpillars did not accept little branches or other dead natural material which I offered them; a big part of the caterpillars pupated in a group on the plastic of the insect box and the other part on the green broccoli leaves. Fortunately one caterpillar transformed into a pupa on a day I did not have to work (see sequence 1).
In the meantime I found an other caterpillar nest of the Large White on broccoli and some new eggs of the Green-veined White and/or Small White but they have to survive outside as I have no more space available on my kitchen table!
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  • Home
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  • About
    • Biography
    • Photography
    • Contact
  • Blog
  • Butterfly Gallery
    • Hesperiidae >
      • Chequered Skipper
      • Dingy Skipper
      • Essex Skipper
      • Grizzled Skipper
      • Large Chequered Skipper
      • Large Skipper
      • Mallow Skipper
      • Red-underwing Skipper
      • Silver-spotted Skipper
      • Small Skipper
    • Papilionidae >
      • Apollo
      • Clouded Apollo
      • Scarce Swallowtail
      • Swallowtail
      • Southern Swallowtail
      • Southern Festoon
      • Spanish Festoon
    • Pieridae >
      • Black-veined White
      • Green-veined White
      • Large White
      • Wood White
      • Small White
      • Orange-tip
      • Portuguese Dappled White
      • Provence Orange-tip
      • Western Dappled White
      • Brimstone
      • Cleopatra
      • Clouded Yellow
      • Pale Clouded Yellow
      • Berger's Clouded Yellow
      • Mountain Clouded Yellow
    • Lycaenidae >
      • Black Hairstreak
      • Brown Hairstreak
      • False Ilex Hairstreak
      • Green Hairstreak
      • Ilex Hairstreak
      • Purple Hairstreak
      • Sloe Hairstreak
      • White-letter Hairstreak
      • Large Copper
      • Purple-edged Copper
      • Purple-shot Copper
      • Scarce Copper
      • Small Copper
      • Sooty Copper
      • Violet Copper
      • Adonis Blue
      • Alcon Blue
      • Alpine Blue
      • Amanda's Blue
      • Baton Blue
      • Brown Argus
      • Chalkhill Blue
      • Chequered Blue
      • Common Blue
      • Cranberry Blue
      • Damon Blue
      • Dusky Large Blue
      • Escher's Blue
      • Geranium Argus
      • Glandon Blue
      • Green-underside Blue
      • Holly Blue
      • Idas Blue
      • Large Blue
      • Mazarine Blue
      • Mountain Alcon Blue
      • Northern Brown Argus
      • Piedmont anomalous Blue
      • Provence Chalkhill Blue
      • Reverdin's Blue
      • Ripart's anomalous Blue
      • Scarce Large Blue
      • Silver-studded Blue
      • Silvery Argus
      • Small Blue
      • Short-tailed Blue
      • Turquoise Blue
      • Duke of Burgundy
    • Nymphalidae >
      • Purple Emperor
      • Lesser Purple Emperor
      • White Admiral
      • Southern White Admiral
      • Hungarian Glider
      • Camberwell Beauty
      • Comma Butterfly
      • Large Tortoiseshell
      • Map Butterfly
      • Painted Lady
      • Peacock
      • Red Admiral
      • Small Tortoiseshell
      • Assmann's Fritillary
      • Bog Fritillary
      • Cardinal
      • Cranberry Fritillary
      • Dark Green Fritillary
      • False Heath Fritillary
      • Glanville Fritillary
      • Grisons Fritillary
      • Heath Fritillary
      • High Brown Fritillary
      • Knapweed Fritillary
      • Lesser Marbled Fritillary
      • Marbled Fritillary
      • Marsh Fritillary
      • Meadow Fritillary
      • Mountain Fritillary
      • Nickerl's Fritillary
      • Niobe Fritillary
      • Pearl-bordered Fritillary
      • Queen of Spain Fritillary
      • Shepard's Fritillary
      • Silver-washed Fritillary
      • Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary
      • Spotted Fritillary
      • Titania's Fritillary
      • Twin-Spot Fritillary
      • Weaver's Fritillary
    • Satyridae >
      • Alpine Heath
      • Arran Brown
      • Chestnut Heath
      • Dusky Heath
      • Gatekeeper
      • Great Banded Grayling
      • Large Ringlet
      • Large Wall Brown
      • Marbled White
      • Meadow Brown
      • Pearly Heath
      • Ringlet
      • Small Heath
      • Southern Grayling
      • Speckled Wood
      • Wall Brown
      • Woodland Grayling
      • Woodland Ringlet
    • Metamorphosises >
      • Spotted Fritillary
      • Large White
      • Red Admiral
      • Black-veined White
      • Map Butterfly
      • Swallowtail
      • Peacock
      • Orange-tip
      • Brimstone
      • Small Tortoiseshell
      • Painted Lady
      • Comma Butterfly
      • Portuguese Dappled White
      • Camberwell Beauty
      • Queen of Spain Fritillary
    • Alpine Species
    • Germany - Eifel
    • Butterflies in France
    • Butterflies NL
    • Threats & Enemies
    • UFI
  • Gallery A - Z
    • Amphibians
    • Aosta - Gran Paradiso
    • Ardeche
    • Bayerischer Wald
    • Beetles
    • Bluebell Forest
    • Caterpillars
    • Cevennes
    • Dordogne
    • Holy Love
    • Hungary
    • Insects - Others
    • Jumping Spiders
    • Kleine Beerze
    • Kleine Beerze II
    • Koebosch
    • Landschotse Heide
    • Little Owl
    • Luberon
    • Lueneburger Heide
    • Mercantour
    • Mercantour part II
    • Orchids Dream
    • Pink and Purple
    • Snakes and Reptiles
    • Spiders
    • Spring Flowers
    • Strabrechtse Heide
    • Styria
    • Teutoburger Wald
    • Toxic Tales
    • Var
  • Blog Vosges
    • Butterflies in the Vosges
    • Nature in the Vosges
    • House Gallery Vosges
  • Rust In Peace
    • Citroen
    • Ford
    • Hanomag
    • Mercedes
    • Peugeot
    • Renault
    • Simca
    • Sleeping Beauty