"Annabel" wrote in message ...
"Barry & Iris McCanna" wrote in message
...
I grow a lot of different varieties of Aquilegia. Late summer last
year they were attacked by very small green caterpillars. It was only
the aquilegias that were affected. I managed to kill them all.
Yesterday I discovered the start of another mass attack, this much
earlier than last year. Again only the aquilegias. Has anyone any
idea what the culprit is? There aren't too many butterflies around
yet.

Regards
Iris McCanna

--

I don't know the answer to your question but the butterfly caterpillars
are hugely outnumbered by moth and other insect caterpillars.

Bel

Generally the only European butterflies that are major pests are the
two Cabbage
Whites. Pieris brassicae (The Large White) and Pieris rapae (The Small
White).
(Technically Pieris cheiranthi too but it is only on a few of the
Canary islands)
There are other species for which garden plants are on the list of
foodplants but generally they won't touch them in a garden situation.
In France you might just get Swallowtails on your carrots, but that
is worth it. They really are spectacular and so are the caterpillars
There is one on the centre of my home page. I am growing carrots and
several other unbellifers just for captive Swallowtails.

Caterpillar problems are much more likely to be moths. Nothing
specific comes immediately to mind. If you have caterpillars that
gather on the edge of the leaves and curl out defensively when
approached they are the larvae of sawflies.

--
Neil Jones- http://www.butterflyguy.com/
"At some point I had to stand up and be counted. Who speaks for the
butterflies?" Andrew Lees - The quotation on his memorial at Crymlyn
Bog National Nature Reserve