Polydamus butterflies

[Doug Yanega]

>Hi,
>
>I'm asking this for a friend who lives in Florida (Orlando area). She has
>some Polydamus chrysalides that are either dead or are overwintering, but
>she can't tell which. Is it possible that they are overwintering?

Heft them in your palm. If they're almost weightless, as if hollow, then
they're dead. If they feel like they could be solid still, with a gooey
center, then they may just be in diapause. Once one gets the hang of this,
it can be trivially easy to separate definitely dead from possibly live
pupae.

Peace,

Doug Yanega    Depto. de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas,
Univ. Fed. de Minas Gerais, Cx.P. 486, 30.161-970 Belo Horizonte, MG   BRAZIL
phone: 31-499-2579, fax: 31-499-2567  (from U.S., prefix 011-55)
                  http://www.icb.ufmg.br/~dyanega/
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82