Currently unavailable. The camberwell beauty is a large and beautiful butterfly that visits these shores as a rare migrant and delights when it does. My own personal recollection of this species relates to a sunny afternoon in 1996 on Loughborough train station when I saw the dark outline of a large, gliding nymphalide and two flashes of yellow / cream recede into the distance between two banks of rosebay willowherb - a special memory that does not diminish with time. In the wild, adult camberwells are tree sap feeders, but in captivity they do very well on a diet of soft fruit.
Eggs are laid in large batches on elms, poplars, willows and sallows where the larvae live gregariously until the later instars. European migrants have one brood, overwintering as an adult. North American camberwells, or 'mourning cloaks' as they are known in the USA have two generations before the adults go into diapause. The caterpillars are not difficult if sleeved in warm conditions and can even be reared well on cut food that is changed daily and not allowed to dry out. High temperatures are needed for pairing and care must be taken if one intends to overwinter the adults succesfully.
Larval foodplants: elms (ulmus); poplar (populus); willow and sallow (salix).
Rearing: cut food wrapped in wet cotton wool; sleeves.
