This gallery includes photographs of the Brimstone life cycle taken during 2012. Early in that year I replanted part of a hedge and took the opportunity to include some Alder Buckthorn. During their wanderings Brimstone butterflies are regular visitors to the garden and I hoped they would lay eggs on their larval food plant. This proved to be the case with several egg laying females taking immediate advantage of the Alder Buckthorn. It allowed the life cycle to be followed from newly deposited ova, through larvae and pupae to the emergence of a new crop of adults. Around 30 adults eventually emerged and hopefully they fed well and managed to hibernate over the winter.