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Butterflies of
Britain & Europe
Red Admiral
Vanessa atalanta
LINNAEUS, 1758
Family - NYMPHALIDAE
subfamily -
NYMPHALINAE
Tribe - NYMPHALINI
introduction
|
habitats |
lifecycle |
adult behaviour
Text and photographs protected by Copyright © Adrian
Hoskins 2007-2008, and must not be reproduced or published in part
or in whole elsewhere in any form without written permission from
Adrian Hoskins. Breach of copyright will be pursued by litigation.
Website designed, produced and owned by
Adrian Hoskins
Red Admiral
Vanessa atalanta, female,
Stansted Forest, West Sussex, England
Introduction
The Red
Admiral is probably Britain's most well known butterfly, and certainly one of
the most beautiful, with it's almost perfect pattern of red bands and white
spots on a black background. It was first named as "the
Admirable" by Moses Harris in 1766.
Click here to see the historic
names of other British butterflies.
Red Admiral
Vanessa atalanta,
Noar Hill, Hampshire, England
The
butterfly is widely distributed and common throughout mainland Europe and north
Africa. In northern Scandinavia and in Britain it occurs as a migrant.
It
cannot be confused with any other European butterfly except the similar
Indian Red Admiral V. indica,
which has a much wider, irregularly shaped red band on the forewings. It occurs
together with atalanta
on Madeira and the Canary Islands, and throughout much of the Oriental region,
but is inexplicably absent from Europe and north Africa.
Elsewhere in the world there are several other Red Admiral species, including
V. buana
from Sulawesi, V. samani
from Sumatra, V. dejeani
from Bali, and the very beautiful
V.
gonerilla from New
Zealand.
Habitats
This
species occurs in Britain as a migrant originating from northern Africa and
southern Europe, and being an extremely mobile species, it
can turn up in any
habitat including woodlands, grasslands, meadows, heathlands and moors, coastal
habitats, riverbanks, low montane habitats, gardens, parks, allotments and town
centres. Males also gather at certain grassland hilltop sites, apparently to
intercept migrating females.
The number of migrants varies according to
climatic
conditions in Europe, and in turn this greatly affects the number of UK bred
butterflies seen later in the year.
Migrants
arriving in the early spring oviposit on stinging nettles growing alongside
hedgerows or in woodland glades, producing a summer brood in the UK which
typically emerges from mid July to early August. In early
autumn these
butterflies migrate south, arriving in southern woodlands
where they congregate to nectar at ivy blossom.
Red Admiral
Vanessa atalanta, nectaring at
ivy blossom, Stansted Forest.
There is now mounting evidence that
in mild winters a small percentage of Red Admirals
are able to
successfully over-winter in
southern England. They awake
on warm days, and
sightings are frequent in southern
woodlands on sunny days between October and
late January.
In normal winters they
are usually killed by the hard
February frosts, but in
the very mild winter of 2006/2007 there were almost unbroken
sightings in West Sussex, Hampshire
and Dorset from October until the following March. The
surviving adults laid eggs as early as January, producing a new generation of
adults which emerged in early May.
One of the hibernation sites at
Stansted Forest, where large numbers of Red Admirals arrive each autumn. In
exceptionally warm winters as many as 15 percent survive the winter, and
disperse into the open countryside in early spring.
Red Admiral
Vanessa atalanta, basking on
hazel leaf, November 2007
Lifecycle
In late April and May, female Red Admirals can be observed flying around nettle patches in woodland glades. They periodically alight on nettle leaves Urtica dioica, upon which they lay a single egg. Usually a dozen or so eggs will be laid on any sizeable nettle patch. Egg-laying is interspersed with periods of basking and nectaring - typically at blackthorn, crab apple, and wild cherry.
2nd brood adults, which may be of either UK or European origin, are less particular about oviposition sites. They will lay their eggs in any sheltered sunny lowland habitat where the foodplant grows e.g. in July 2008 in my Hampshire garden I watched 2 Red Admirals laying eggs on the same small clump of unkempt nettles. Each laid about a dozen eggs between about 11.00am and 1.00pm. The eggs were all laid singly on the upperside of terminal nettle leaves. The egg-laying bouts, which each lasted about 2-3 minutes were interspersed with periods of basking, and periodic flights to nectar at a Buddleia bush a few metres away. Interestingly a Comma was ovipositing simultaneously on the same nettle patch, and neither species seemed disturbed by the presence of the other.
The larva lives and feeds within a tent of folded nettle leaves, spun together with silk. Every few days, as the leaf-tent gets devoured, the larva moves house, and spins a new tent nearby. If these tents are opened, the spiky greenish-brown larva can be seen within, normally curled in a J shape, head-downwards. The caterpillars of most butterfly species tend to wander some distance away from their foodplants to pupate, but the Red Admiral is unusual, in that it forms it's greyish chrysalis within the caterpillar's leaf-tent. Adult behaviour
Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta, basking on sweet chestnut trunk
Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta, basking on larch trunk
On sunny days the butterflies often bask on tree-trunks, always assuming a head-downwards or sideways facing position. In warm but overcast weather they like to bask on the foliage of bramble, hazel and other bushes.
In early spring Red Admirals nectar at sallow catkins and the blossom of blackthorn and hawthorn. Favoured summer nectar sources include dogwood, hemp agrimony, bramble, marjoram, devil's bit scabious, ragwort, burdock, spear thistle and ivy blossom. They also visit dung, or imbibe mineral salts from damp ground, and attend sap runs on oak trunks.
In gardens they will nectar at buddleia, ice-plant and michaelmas daisies. In orchards they will feed at fallen apples or pears.
Red Admirals are inquisitive, and will often investigate humans entering their territory. On several occasions I have been dive-bombed by individuals that have swooped to make contact with the top of my head. Males are highly territorial, chasing after Commas and Peacocks as well as other Red Admirals. When nectaring however they will accept the presence of other species, and I have often seen mixed groups of Red Admirals, Silver-washed Fritillaries, Commas, and Large Whites gathered on a single flower head of hemp agrimony or buddleia.
At night, on cold overcast days, and during the winter months, Red Admirals roost head-downwards on the trunks or lower branches of oaks, larches and other trees, where the bark-like underside of the wings provides them with excellent camouflage.
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