Vanessa at night - no 3

[mbpi at juno.com]

Hi there!

When I was working as the Leps Handler/Interpreter in the Field Museum's
outdoor butterfly/moth tent this past summer, I put in a request to spend
the night in the tent...strictly as "research"...to see what went on in
the exhibit after dark.

Despite the fact that I received the "go ahead" from my boss, the
museum's Security Supervisor "nixed" the proposition, even though the
tent had 24-hour security from Pinkerton (!)  I felt perfectly
comfortable spending a night in the tent since I knew all the evening
security personnel...but apparently the museum didn't feel comfortable
having ME spend the night.

Such is the BANE of dealing with a bureaucracy!  I might have retrieved
some interesting, if not valuable information.

I HATE being stifled...

M.B. Prondzinski

On Sun, 03 Feb 2002 10:53:12 -0500 Woody Woods <woody.woods at umb.edu>
writes:
> Stan and others, regarding the suggested experiment, perhaps another 
> way would
> be to work with marked butterflies in a walk-in cage, monitoring 
> their
> position 2-3 times through the night. If the butterflies are flying 
> at night,
> this would allow directionality of movement to be established. 
> Colleagues have
> done cage experiments with migrating butterflies in Costa Rica 
> (crepuscular
> behavior though, not nocturnal) and have found cage movements and 
> activity
> corresponding to outdoor observations.
> 
> I have found Vanessa occasionally-- not often-- flying in an indoor 
> walk-in
> cage during the night portion of a 16L:8D light cycle, at a 
> temperature of
> around 21 decrees C. Those observations are at this point just 
> anecdotal,
> though. 
> 
> Monitoring activity of caged animals has contributed to 
> understanding of bird
> migration in a number of classic works. 
> 
> I guess I'd be concerned that in an outdoor experiment a butterfly 
> could crawl
> out and then be taken by spiders or something else-- a problem I had 
> even with
> some cage experiments when plants were in the cage. Often the 
> remaining bits
> were scattered. However, doing BOTH outdoor caged and cageless 
> experiments
> could be pretty strong. 
> 
> Also, it is certainly true that the eyes of nocturnally flying moths 
> are have
> the capacity to dark-adapt, with consistent physiological changes 
> following a
> circadian pattern (articles by Richard White and Ruth Bennett), and 
> a logical
> research step would be to ask whether the eyes of Vanessa and other 
> suspected
> nocturnal migrators have the same capacity. 
> 
> Woody Woods
> 
> Stan Gorodenski wrote:
> > 
> > Paul Cherubini wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > 
> > Of course, the biology of the butterfly would have to be taken 
> into
> > consideration.  What I suggested is not a completely worked out
> > experimental design, nor was it intended to be one.  If your 
> observation
> > regarding the Monarch translates to Vanessa, then the absence or
> > presence of the butterfly would not be monitored throughout the 
> night
> > but just once, no later than one hour prior to sunrise.
> >  (snip)
> > 
> > > With regard to butterflies flying at night, here is a response
> > > from Dr. Chip Taylor I found on the Web:
> > >
> > > http://www.monarchwatch.org/read/faq4.htm#29
> > > 29. Why don't the Monarch butterflies fly at night?
> > >
> > > Dr. Chip Taylor replies:
> > >
> > > "Butterflies are diurnal insects which means they only fly
> > > during the day. We are not aware of any butterflies
> > > that fly at night. Why this is the case is not clear, but
> > > butterflies are generally brightly colored and highly
> > > visual and their eyes are not designed to function
> > > under low light conditions. Moths are predominantly
> > > nocturnal (night flying) and they have what are known
> > > as "dark adapted" eyes which allow them to fly at night
> > > when light levels are extremely low."
> > >
> > 
> > 
> > 
> -- 
> *********************************************************
> William A. Woods Jr.
> Department of Biology
> University of Massachusetts Boston
> 100 Morrissey Blvd                      Lab: 617-287-6642
> Boston, MA 02125                        Fax: 617-287-6650
> *********************************************************
> 
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