My butterfly took about 20 minutes to ermerge from it’s chrysalis and it’s left wing is completely crumpled. It pains me to see it struggle, I have no idea how to recover it’s Bent wings…! How do I save it? Or do I have to euthanize it because it “does not serves a purpose” anymore?
There is nothing you can do, such deformations happen naturally. But don’t kill it, if you have another chrysalis wait for that one to emerge and it might still have a chance to mate
Are you sure you had right conditions for emerging? From what I read it has higher chance to happen in dry conditions, but you probably read more about it.
Once the wings harden wrong, it can’t be helped.
I’m afraid not much can be done. But a bird parent trying to raise a family might appreciate it. :) See this post too.
I’m not sure if all, but Papilio sp. are toxic.
Insects do not feel pain and do not struggle. Pain is only needed biologically when there’s decision making behavior in higher animals and pain serves to direct that decision making process. Insects have simple “hardwired” behavior. And they come in great numbers so don’t get upset about just one.
I think some, but not all. I think it depends on their host plants? Certainly other species in Papilionidae not in genus Papilio are, eg. Pachliopta aristolochiae. And of course members of Danainae are probably the most well-known poisonous butterflies out there.
I think it’s just better not use them to feed birds.
Yeah I suppose, but its up to the original poster on what they do. I read that invertebrate predators are not susceptible to the butterfly toxins.
Sure it’s up to them, but as it was a suggested way of things, we have to inform that it can have consequences.
Eh, there’s some research that would indicate otherwise. Insects do move away from noxious stimuli, after all- hold a fire near a beetle and it’ll move. Shrimp and crayfish show signs of distress in laboratory experiments testing for it.
(Yes, I know shrimp and crayfish aren’t insects. But people tend to group them in the same “simple” category.)
I saw a similar post not too long ago. A butterfly with mangled wings isn’t going to fly and won’t survive on its own. You do not need to euthanize it, though (and why should it need to “serve a purpose?”). As long as it is still able to feed, you could put it in a terrarium and keep it if you wanted to. Butterflies are not particularly high maintenance pets.
There’s a long recent discussion about it, it’s another theme, so you can discuss it there if you want.
Moving away/towards a stimulus is a very very simple behavior. There’s a stimulus - a hardwired program is activated. Moving away from heat could be described as negative thermotaxis. It doesn’t require learning and reasoning because the response is the same every time, proportional to the intensity of the stimulus. Thus, it doesn’t require pain in order to function.
I Had same problem in my moth rearing colonies and I find some points which could be helpful . This is a kind of genetically abnormality and caused in colonies that had interbreeding for a while. Especially, if the colonies reared in laboratory. Some of these moths have problem in breeding and there is a high chance that the offspring have same problem as well. Therefore, it is better to omit them. If you can collect some wild chrysalises and let emerged adults mate with the moths that you reared. This is going to solve problem for next generation to some extent.
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