SMALL TORTOISE

Small tortoiseshell butterfly on flowers of creeping thistle.  Butterflies are like flying flowers.

Photo: Alan Watts

Some butterflies lay eggs singly but others, like the large and small whites and this character, the Small Tortoiseshell, lay their eggs in large clusters.  The caterpillars start eating the nettle leaves in a group, inside a tent made of silk.  They are easy to spot but not easy to get to, so the tent gives them some protection from birds and the parasitic wasps that attack them.  When they are teenagers they split up and feed on their own.  

Stinging nettles are food plants for three other butterflies too: - peacocks, red admirals and commas.