Aurelian awakes!

This is Guy from Switzerland. Some of you might remember I am keeping an eye on a wild purple emperor caterpillar called Aurelian, whose egg was laid in my local woods last August. In November he hibernated on a joint in a sallow twig and last Wednesday, 21st March, he was still poised over it.

Since then he has woken up and moved to the end of his twig, next to a bud which appears to show signs of having been nibbled. His tree, in a shady hollow, has no leaves yet but elsewhere in sunny parts of the woods there are signs of buds bursting.

(26th March)

(26th March)

(20th February, showing part of the distance he wandered this week)

Aurelian is about seven-and-a-half months old, though still barely a centimetre long from horns to tail. He has made it through a particularly cold winter and just has to survive another week or two of vulnerability before his home becomes a leafy grove again.

Guy