I noticed a couple of days ago that there were lots of Ivy berries forming this year in the garden, so I thought it was worth looking for any Holly Blue larvae. It's been a few years since I last found any here, so this morning following breakfast outside I had a quick look. I saw some feeding damage first, and then an amazing sight of a near fully grown larva being attended by an ant. It was in heavy shade but a few shots were achieved that were not too bad. At one point it realised I was there and it slowly retreated down the stem, this showed clearly the feeding damage it had just done to the Ivy bud. All the time the ant was in attendance, occasionally joined by a 2nd ant. There is no doubt that if the larva survives it will become a 3rd brood butterfly. We are quite a bit later here for Holly Blue than at Lancing, this despite the garden being South facing. There was also a tiny larva that Lisa spotted. This will be a 1st brood next year if once again it survives. A great start to the day!! This afternoon the larva had moved to a new bud and was busy feeding again, this time with two ants in attendance.