Crumpled wings from chrysalis

[Neil Jones]

In article <archilochus-0905990244220001 at user-38h1sm7.dialup.mindspring.com>
           archilochus at mindspring.com "Andria & James Wood" writes:

> To the Lepid-lovers,
<snip>
>   This year, though, several of the butterflies emerged
> with crumpled and otherwise disfigured wings to the point that they
> couldn't fly.  These are Painted Ladies _Vanessa cardui_, and my wife says
> she has never seen such a rash of grounded butterflies (and they really do
> look pitiful!).  Our question to you (the experts) is what would cause
> this abnormality in the first place, and secondly, why so many at one
> time?  Are they emerging prematurely?
> 
>    Thanks for any thoughts on the subject.  
> 
>    Sincerely,
> 
> -- 
>     Andria & James Wood
>      Birmingham, AL  USA
> archilochus at mindspring.com

There are several possible causes. What has happened is that the butterflies
have failed to open their wings to dry them and they have dried in this
crumpled state. This does occur with the occasional individual with experienced
breeders and I have found wild specimens with this problem.

The most likely cause is a lack of humidity. Spray the pupae with a little tepid
water daily. The other usual cause is that the butterflies did not have room
to expand their wings. If you can leave the pupae attached where they formed.
However, in captivity they often form in odd places and sometimes the
caterpillars will even pupate without fixing themselves to anything.
You can move the pupae but leave them for 2 or 3 days to harden first.
You have to watch for smooth surfaces. The emerging butterflies will
need to climb up something fairly rough to dry their wings. If you are rearing
in a plastic container and the caterpillars pupate on the smooth sides or roof
it is probably best to move them. They will be attached at the head end
with a little piece of silk gently tease this away.

Pupae that are detached can be treated as follows:
Get some thin card. I used to use the receipts issued by my ATM cash machine
at one time. Bend it into little corrugations and place the pupae on it gently
face upwards. You will be making the corrugations to roughly fit the
pupae. Then you can place the pupae in a cage preferably made of nylon netting.
Put some twigs in the cage positioned so that the emerging butterflies will
walk right up to them. You actually don't need a cage I used to do this 
on a windowsill but that risks the butteflies being difficult to catch.

The important thing for all the pupae is to make sure that the butterflies have
a good position to climb up and dry their wings.

There are potentially other causes of your problem, poor nutrition of
the larvae, disease, genetic problems, but these instructions will
probably work.


A butterfly drying its wings is a most wonderful thing to watch. I remember
watching a batch of Peacock butterflies (Inachis io) doing this when I was
about 8 years old. 

Good luck


-- 
Neil Jones- Neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk http://www.nwjones.demon.co.uk/
"At some point I had to stand up and be counted. Who speaks for the
butterflies?" Andrew Lees - The quotation on his memorial at Crymlyn Bog
National Nature Reserve