Dying Mourning Cloak?

[Anne Kilmer]

Ths is what to do with your butterfly.
Find a tree with a big flap of loose bark, or a hollow tree. Put the
butterfly in it. Never look at it again. 
Like Schroedinger's cat, the butterfly will be perfectly fine forever,
as long as you don't go back to check on it. 
Of course then you don't get to photograph the wings. 
When I had small children who brought me things to nurse back to health
(some of them in an advanced state of decay) we would "put them under a
bush to walk away." This is much easier on you and the critter than
prolonging everybody's agony with force feedings followed by a quiet
country funeral. 
(When the kids got bigger, and I was nursing everybody, I also took up
taxidermy, but I never preserved any of my clients.)
Good luck either way
Anne Kilmer
south Florida

Mark Cassino wrote:
> 
> Ken --
> 
> Thanks for that info.
> 
> Here's how things stand now:
> 
> The weather changed yesterday with the wind picking up and light rain.  The
> wind was enough to blow the butterfly off its perch, and instead of just
> letting it sit on the ground and get rained on, I brought it into the house.
> Last night I tried feeding it by setting it on a wooden stick with freshly
> crushed apple next to it.  Today I tried again with fresh white grapes.  I
> observed it feeding today, but don't know about yesterday.  I left it with
> the food for several hours and put it in a large house plant at other times.
> 
> It does not open it wings or fly, but walks a little (a few inches.)
> 
> I don't know how these insects hibernate -- could its metabolism have
> shifted into a hibernation mode, thus explaining the lack of energy?  If
> so -- maybe I should put it outside in a protected place and hope that it
> revives in the spring.
> 
> Or could it be suffering from pesticide exposure -- and if so, is there any
> chance of it getting better?
> 
> Thanks --
> 
> MCC
> 
> --
> -------
> Mark Cassino
> Kalamazoo, MI
> cassino at net-link.net
> -------
> Bird, Insect & Graden Photos:
> http://www.net-link.net/~cassino
> 
> <sebrez at webtv.net> wrote in message
> news:8285-38091C78-19 at storefull-122.bryant.webtv.net...
> > Mark,
> >    Mourning Cloaks hibernate over the winter, usually under a loose
> > piece of bark or in a hole in a tree.
> >
> > ken
> > walton ny
> >
> >