catch and release

[Woody Woods]

I thought I would toss in two cents' worth about netting, following
Mark's thread. I almost always swing gently, from beneath and behind the
butterfly, and almost always when the butterfly is in flight. If the one
you are trying to capture is perched, tapping the plant gently from
below the butterfly will cause them to take off, but for the first
second or two after takeoff they will not have gotten up speed. If they
are moving from perch to perch, that is ideal. The net doesn't have to
move very fast except in the fraction of a second when the rim has just
passed the butterfly-- then SLOW DOWN and swing through gently,
finishing by lightly flipping the pocket of the net up and over the rim,
closing off escape. Only once have I ever hurt a captive this way, and
that was in a clumsy moment when I bopped him with the rim. Removing a
butterfly from the net without harm is mostly a matter of patience--
place one hand in the net and hold the net around your wrist with the
other hand, until the butterfly is limited to a small pocket of the net,
then WAIT for the opportunity to gently grasp by the leading edge of the
forewings, about 1/3 to 1/2 way to the wingtip. Keeping the butterfly in
the shade is a good idea, as was suggested earlier-- not because of the
light per se, but because a lowered body temperature (body temperature
is rapidly elevated by basking in sunlight to facilitate flying but is
also rapidly lost-- especially for smaller ones, except skippers-- in
the shade) diminishes the capacity for flight activity.

I should say that I don't collect, and that if a small spot of wing
scales was rubbed by this kind of handling it was not an issue for me or
the butterfly, though usually there was little or no visible damage.
Because I was making metabolic measurements of my captors (puttin' 'em
in a jar and, well, measuring bug breath), it was critical that they not
be handled by the body or otherwise wounded. When released, they flew
off perhaps puzzled but otherwise apparently healthy.

I don't believe that I have just written to THIS list about "how to
catch a butterfly"! Yyeow, I'd better send this right now, before I have
second thoughts...

Woody
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*************************************************
William A. Woods Jr.
Department of Biology
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd
Boston, MA 02125

Lab: 617-287-6642
Fax: 617-287-6650
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