Vanessa atalanta

Hostplant: Urtica spp. In Norway mostly on Urtica dioica, which was used in my breeding efforts.

Lifecycle and behaviour: The female usually lay her eggs singular on the leaves. In captivity it would happen that there was a few eggs laid together in the same spot. The eggs used 5 days to hatch. The larva lives solitary and makes a "housing" of one of the leaves buy rolling it up into a half tube(see picture above). The larval stages lasted about 3 weeks and they molt 4 times. Prepupal stages lasted 2-3 days and the pupal stage another 2 weeks. These timings are based on indoor captive breeding and might differ from outdoor natural conditions. The adults are migratory, appearing during spring/early summer. They usually produce one generation here in Norway that flies into late September.

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