First up, I checked a small area of waste ground right in the middle of the village where a small industrial unit was demolished a couple of years ago but the area has been left to go wild. Very similar to the area in the last post but on a much smaller scale.
Here I found Prickly Lettuce, mainly plants that had already flowered - and unbelievably found a large number of larvae of various sizes from very early instars to pretty much full grown. At least 100 larvae found on this site.
After a quick detour along the old railway line (no Prickly Lettuce but a few other notable bits), I checked the big old car park that used to service the old GEC complex - now mainly a huge industrial wasteland. Lots of Prickly Lettuce in two separate areas.
All of the plants on this site were less advanced than the first, and notably I only found very small larvae or ova!
I'll leave it a week or so before collecting a couple of larvae to rear through and confirm, though I am as sure as I can be that all larvae and ova I found are Small Ranunculus. I also checked two other industrial estates but no Prickly Lettuce found.
4 comments:
Well done Mark! I have check loads of prickly lettuce, but never found the larvae, even though Small Ranunculus seem to be steadily growing more common in the area.
I can't be that lucky! Note the larvae only feed on the flower and seed heads - check the top of the plant.
Well done Mark - glad to see you've taken advantage of the recent lettuce tutorial. Not many moths here - but plenty of humming-birds!
Theyre is a colony developing in Swindon town centre but not on Prickly Lettuce in outlying industrial estates. Maybe a heat island effect!
Also only ever seen them feeding on the flower/seed heads, not on leaves.
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