Burnet larvae

After the recent posts with burnet larva queries, I thought it might be useful to post some photos to highlight the difference in hair length between Narrow-bordered Five-spot and Five- and Six-spot. These images are taken from the excellent ukleps.org website.

Six-spot Burnet (Reg Fry)

Five-spot Burnet (Ian Rose)

Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet (David Howdon)

The ground colour, degree of black spotting and colour of the hairs is said to be variable, which leaves no reliable way of telling Six- and Five-spot Burnet larvae apart, as far as I can tell. The NBFSB, though, has much longer hairs, as visible in the final pic.

Here are the two posted on the blog recently:

Ian's larva from Pwll

Maggie's larva from Ffos Las

Maggie's has short hairs and must be Five or Six spot. Ian's is a bit more tricky - the hairs are longer in places, but not as long as those in the ukleps photo of NBFSB (or others I can see online). So I'd say the jury is still out on that one, sorry!

George