Satyrium w-album

[wolf]

This sp is considered local and rare around south eastern part of Norway. Most likely they are more common than we think, but since they spend most of their time high up in the canopy they are easily overlooked. I was happy to find a spot last year, and in early April this year i decided to go and look for eggs, only to find that most of the eggs had allready hatched! I was however able to find some L1 larva feeding on the leaf- and flowerbuds of the hostplant Ulmus glabra. I managed to grab 11 L1 larva. 3 of these died in late L1/early L2 stage(for some reason they stopped eating?). The rest pupated, and the first male and female have now hatched. Since i have been keeping them inside, their life cycle has been pretty fast, and the hatching is unusually early, as these usually fly from late june/beginning of july here in Norway.

Data:
L1 larva found 6. april.
First larva pupated 27. april.
First male hatched 14. may, and first female hatched today the 19. may.

Enjoy the pics!

Eggs, hatched and unhatched

L1


L2



L3


L4




Prepupa

Pupa


Adults

[yorky]

Great pictures Wolf, I am lucky to have this species in the woods where I live, in 2017 they reached almost epidemic numbers, never seen anything like it.

[xavm (Xavier)]

Amazing pictures. Thanks for sharing