butterflies

by Michelle and Sarah

The peacock butterfly lays its eggs on nettles. This butterfly is not as common as some other butterflies around our school. The peacock is a European butterfly. It is common in July.

The Red Admiral Butterfly

by Doireann and Lynn

The red admiral butterfly is red and black with white spots. The male and female are similar. The red admiral lays a single egg on a nettle leaf.

The eggs are very small. Large numbers of red admiral fly over to Ireland from Europe in late spring and early summer.

The Large White Butterfly

By Seán and Jade

We sometimes see the large white butterfly around our school. We see them mostly from May to September. They feed on nasturtiums.

The female lays her eggs on a plant. The eggs are laid in batches and appear dark yellow. The egg stage is usually about a week. The eggs are laid on cabbages. The caterpillar turns into a pupa.

	The Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly by Emma and Louise The small tortoiseshell butterfly is found all over the place. Like all butterflies, it starts as an egg. It hatches and then it is a caterpillar. After a while it goes to sleep in a chrysalis. On a sunny day, it will become a butterfly. The caterpillar’s food is a stinging nettle.
The tortoiseshell gets its nectar from garden plants like daisies, sedum or buddleia. We have all these around our school. It often makes a chrysalis at the top of curtain folds. We mostly see the tortoiseshell around June or July. The colours are orangey-red, yellow and black. They are mostly orangey red. We used to mix up the tortoiseshell and the red admiral but now we know the difference.

The Peacock Butterfly by Michelle and Sarah The peacock butterfly lays its eggs on nettles. This butterfly is not as common as some other butterflies around our school. The peacock is a European butterfly. It is common in July.
The peacock has four eyes on each side on the top and bottom. The peacock has the colours of the rainbow. The wing of the butterfly is covered in thousands of tiny scales of different colours. It is dull brown on the underside but it is brightly coloured when it’s open.

	The Red Admiral Butterfly by Doireann and Lynn The red admiral butterfly is red and black with white spots. The male and female are similar. The red admiral lays a single egg on a nettle leaf. The eggs are very small. Large numbers of red admiral fly over to Ireland from Europe in late spring and early summer.
We find a lot of them sucking nectar on the sedum plants at the school gates when we come back in September. People think that they are the most beautiful of butterflies.

The Orange Tip Butterfly by Katie and Aideen Early in May we went on a nature walk. We found lots of orange tip butterflies and small white butterflies together. They were flying around the lady smock along the side of the road. The orange tip lays her eggs on lady smock.
The male is orange tipped. The female is white. The orange tip butterfly has a little tip of orange on the edge of both its wings. Butterflies like many insects change as they grow. This change is called metamorphosis. When the butterfly lays her eggs on a flower or leaves it hatches out and is a small caterpillar. Months or weeks later it hatches out of its pupa and it is a lovely colourful butterfly.

		The Large White Butterfly By Seán and Jade We sometimes see the large white butterfly around our school. We see them mostly from May to September. They feed on nasturtiums. The female lays her eggs on a plant. The eggs are laid in batches and appear dark yellow. The egg stage is usually about a week. The eggs are laid on cabbages. The caterpillar turns into a pupa.
When it is ready to come out of the pupa it will start to shake. It is wet and soggy when it comes out first. It flies around until it has dried off. Then it finds a mate and starts again.

Nature News

Butterflies

The Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly

The small tortoiseshell butterfly is found all over the place. Like all butterflies, it starts as an egg. It hatches and then it is a caterpillar. After a while it goes to sleep in a chrysalis. On a sunny day, it will become a butterfly. The caterpillar’s food is a stinging nettle.

The Peacock Butterfly

The Red Admiral Butterfly

The Large White Butterfly