Red Admiral

Vanessa atalanta

Prefered habitat -

Areas rich with flowers, nettles and rotting fruit

Food Source
Caterpillars feed on nettles and fold the leaves around themselves as a protective tent.

Adult red admirals feed from flowers such as buddleia, bramble and ivy, as well as on the juices of rotting fallen fruit

Local Site -

Hendre Lake & Trowbridge Meadows

photo by Chris Harris

A Bit About Me

A large and strong-flying butterfly commonly seen in gardens. This familiar and distinctive insect may be found anywhere in UK .

The majority of red admirals migrate to the UK in summer from central Europe. The females lay eggs which result in fresh butterflies from about July onwards. They continue flying into October or November

Identification

Black with red fringes to the hindwings, red stripes across the forewings with white markings towards the wing tips. They have a proboscis made up of two tubes which together form the feeding tube .