Rare butterfly back in the Netherlands

This video is about large tortoiseshell transformation from caterpillar to chrysalis.

Translated from the Dutch entomologists of the Vlinderstichting:

Thursday, January 3, 2013

While searching for hibernating bats in South-Kennemerland a large tortoiseshell butterfly was found. This is the first report of such a wintering ever. It seems that the large tortoiseshell will again settle in our country.

Earlier, in the first half of the last century the large tortoiseshell butterfly was permanently present in the Netherlands. Then, the species will also have wintered, but there are no reports of overwintering large tortoiseshells. This is due, among other things, to the butterflies crawling into hollow trees and under piles of wood making them difficult to spot and not easily found.

This is in contrast to small tortoiseshell and peacock buttterflies which winter in houses and barns and then are quite often seen.

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