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Admiral

 

 

 Admirable, ”admirable”, “wonderful” in French, has been transformed into ”admiral”, as the sea officer rank, for the name of the butterfly in Estonian. Its name in Finnish (”amiraaliperhonen”), German, English also means admiral. But in French it is Le Vulcain ...

 

Admirals were seen in North Estonia a week ago. The weather has been cool, true, but strong southern winds were blowing for a long time. But maybe our paths had simply not crossed earlier.

 

Admirals can be found flying at forest verges and in meadows as well as in open landscapes and gardens: check around the compost pile.

 

The migrating admiral butterflies move individually, and find a mate when they are in place. The distances that admirals fly in an hour have been investigated in Central Europe and shown to be a little more than 10 kilometres – thus not a very fast flyer. The individuals that have arrived here already look rather worn. Large specimens have a wing span of up to 7 centimetres.

 

Like the small tortoiseshell butterfly, a mated female admiral butterfly lays her eggs on annual nettles and common nettles. It is quite a chore since every egg is attached individually and they may be around a hundred. In a week the caterpillar emerges, and is busy for 2-3 weeks only with eating. After this the caterpillar creates a rolled leaf shelter around itself and turns into a pupa. In late August and September we see the young generation of admirals hatched here in all their splendour.

 

A rare migrant twenty years ago, it has become quite common in Estonia today.