This year the nettles that grow in front of the 'wildlife hedge' have been food for the caterpillars of the Small Tortoiseshell butterfly (Aglais urticae) - the clue to their identity is found in their Latin name.
I confirmed this observation by consulting a small reference book which informed me that nettles are their food plant (tick), eggs are laid severally at a time (tick); and the caterpillars live in a web. (tick). It was a large, dark, slow moving, pulsating web which devoured the nettles from top to bottom.
Now the small tortoiseshell caterpillars have all disappeared. As they grew, they shed their skins stage by stage until it was time to pupate. Where have they gone? My compact reference book does not tell me. I hope they are somewhere safe in the soil, awaiting metamorphosis. The only evidence that they were ever there is their discarded skins, empty and stiff, heads up, front feet in the air, hind feet secured to the skeletal and denuded nettles.
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