Searching for butterfly eggs

Nature Talk
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Does anyone have any tips for searching for butterfly eggs?

I am in Europe, and apparetly it is easier to detect some butterflies by their eggs on the foodplant in winter than by the flying adults, in my area this should be Satyrium, Favonius and Thecla (mostly on Prunus and Quercus sp., one on Ulmus); all of those like to fly high and rest in the canopy in big trees, so they can be difficult to observe as adults.

I know how the eggs are suposed to look like, but I have only seen pictures, and I am also not sure where on the trees I should look for, and also how common the eggs are (I know at least 3 species of Satyrium and the Favonius are present in the area from iNat, Thecla and further two Satyrium from literature).
So should I throughly look through each twig I can reach? Or just casually check a twig or two when I pass a host plant? Are the eggs even present so low in the tree I can find them?

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Here’s what I’ve done so far:

  • Identify the host plant for the species you’re looking for;
  • Also learn about the habits of the species (it’s much easier to find eggs of a single species so you know where to look for them - on the underside of the leaf for example)
  • Observe the butterflies in your garden or neighborhood;
  • Use a magnifying glass and be patient - it might take a while until you find some eggs but after you start finding some you’ll be good at it. Butterflies do their best to hide their eggs from predators so they won’t be very visible if you don’t look carefully.
    Happy egg-finding!
1 Like
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I am primarily a botanist, so host plants are no problem.

I also know that species I am looking for generally lay the eggs on the buds or branch forks of trees and large bushes; and are difficult to observe as adults, as they fly in the canopy of said trees and bushes, and come lower only to lay their eggs.

I think I found some:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/251543792

An I see I will absolutely need my phone microscope to be sure of what I find, my phone alone is not good enough.

So I guess what remains is during winter moss excursion to be on the lookout for these tiny eggs :)

Thank you!

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Yay! Now that you’ve ‘switched’ to super macro mode it’ll be easier to find more eggs. Well done! :fist_right::fist_left:

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