A note from Nigel Venters about the workshop:

This workshop presents instruction on all aspects of breeding Painted Ladies, Red Admirals, and the Long-Wings (Heliconidae) species. Although Painted Ladies and Long-Wings are from totally separate butterfly families, and it may appear unusual to include them together, they share a number of common solutions when being captive bred. It is only for this reason they are combined in to a single, comprehensive workshop, covering every aspect the breeder needs to know to be successful with them

This workshop starts with the most efficient egg laying set-ups, followed by their care at every stage. Although many of these species will accept a wide range of host-plants, many of these plants are actually marginal host-plants, or are not the best to use in an efficient breeding set-up.

As usual, the workshop discusses in detail the best way to breed these species, trouble free, using the minimum possible space, and with the minimum effort or work required to do so. In short, you will breed huge amount of healthy butterflies, consistently in the smallest space possible, which allows large numbers to be bred at the same time.

The Long-wings are covered in depth, and as the Gulf Fritillary, is by far the most popular Long-wing amongst breeders, there is a long section on this species,. Of course Zebra Longwings, The Postman, and many of the more tropical species are covered in depth. There will be a long section of breeding all these species in climates that would not normally allow overwintering, and will allow year round breeding if required, or just keeping a breeding stock alive though a cold winter, ready to start off again in the spring when the warmer weather returns.

The section about Painted Ladies details how to raise using natural Host-plants. However, a separate, detailed section on artificial diet for Painted Ladies is provided by experienced commercial butterfly breeders Melanie McCarthy, Dean Kirkwood and Linda Rogers. Melanie in particular is an expert on this subject, with many years experience of breeding Painted Ladies on A.D. and has ironed out all of the problems for you!

Nigel