White admiral

White Admiral
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Superfamily:	Papilionoidea
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Limenitis
Species:	L. camilla
Binomial name
Limenitis camilla (Linnaeus, 1764)

The White Admiral (Limenitis camilla) is a butterfly of the Nymphalidae family. They are found in woodland throughout southern Britain and much of Europe and Asia, extending as far east as Japan.

Adult white admirals has black wings with white bands. The contrasting colours help to break up the outline of the wing, camoflaging it from predators. They have a wing span of approximately 60-65 mm and have a distinctive, elegant flight comprising of short periods of wing beats, followed by long glides.

The white admiral feeds on bramble blossom and honeydew and the female will lay it's eggs singly on wisps of honeysuckle growing in dense woodland. The caterpillars are green with red-brown hairs and are camoflaged on a leaf, by a mixture of their own dropping and silk. As autum approaches it will form a tent like structure made of leaf tissue known as a hibernaculum which it then secures to the stem with silk before hibernating.The caterpillar will then awaken the folowing spring and after a brief spell of feeding will moult revealing a spiny green skin. It will then pupate during the summer, forming a green and gold chrysalis. After approximately two weeks the adult will emerge