Chrysalis- and I Don't Mean Me

I just finished reading Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis by Kim Todd. Maria Merian was born in Frankfurt, Germany and grew up in the family publishing business. Her artistic talents were encouraged and nurtured almost from the day she could hold a paint brush. Ms. Merian was also fascinated by butterflies, moths, caterpillars, and metamorphosis. As a young girl, Maria spent countless hours searching out caterpillars and cocoons to bring home, sketch, and observe, trying to unravel the mystery of insects.



Image via Ursus Books & Prints



Merian began working in her family's publishing business, learning the delicate task of engraving plates for printing and at the age of 28 published her first book, New Book of Flowers, a collection of her sketches, drawings, and paintings. Merian married early, began a family, moved to Nuremberg, divorced her husband, moved to a secluded cult compound, fled from there to Amsterdam, and finally, at the age of 52, travelled to Suriname in South America for the sole purpose of studying, painting, and exploring as many of the Amazonian butterflies, moths, and caterpillars as she could discover. She had metamorphosis fever.



Public domain image from German Wikipedia



Oh, did I mention that she left for Suriname in the year 1699? Yes, that's right, 1699.



Photo by Terry Dunn via Flickr



Now, there are two things in life for which I have a special passion. One is obviously butterflies. The other is the Amazonian River Basin. It's been a fantasy of mine since childhood to travel up the Amazon River to it's source, or as close as I can get. I read whatever I can about the early exploration and history of the Amazon River Basin and I know from my readings that the Amazon jungle, even now, is no place for the weak of body or faint of heart. Though it is still a wild and dangerous place (sometimes in ways that have nothing to do with geography), the Amazon jungle defeated more early European explorers than can be counted. It is a beautiful yet brutal place. In those early years of exploration,  the animals of the jungle such as leopards and snakes might get you but it was more likely that if the indigenous tribes didn't do away with you the insects and plant life would surely do the job. Savage, that's just all you can say about some of the ways the tiny fauna of the Amazon can dispense with you. And some of the fauna ain't so tiny.

 Note- After a photo search, I have decided to skip over inserting a visual aid at this point as even I was getting a bit freaked out. No need to illustrate giant insects  of the Amazon Jungle because I would like for y'all to come back to the Butterfly Jungle (where there are no giant insects).

With 90% of the animal species in the Amazon being insects, Merian was in her glory. A single square mile of rain forest has on average more than 50,000 insect species, with an estimated 4,000 of those being butterflies. Emphasis on "estimated". Merian had originally intended to stay in Suriname for five years and quickly established herself in the coastal capital of Paramaribo, developing relationships with the indigenous tribes along the rivers she travelled to the interior. Fearless, Merian hired guides to cut paths into the jungle. Merian sketched, painted, collected, observed, and interviewed. After only two years and weak from what was most likely malaria, Merian was forced to return home.

I picked up this book because the idea of a woman in her early 50's packing up and heading out into the Amazon Jungle in 1699 AD to study metamorphosis intrigued me- naturally. But this book is not just a biography of an acclaimed artist and self-taught entomology pioneer. It is also an exploration of the study of metamorphosis. At the time, the prevailing belief about where insects came from was that they arose from "spontaneous generation". In this context, "spontaneous generation" did not refer to the origin of life (life oozing up out of the primordial soup) but to the origin of the mice in your cupboard, for example. If you wrapped cheese and bread in rags and stashed them in a dark corner you would soon have mice in the rags and so- spontaneous generation of mice. Insects arose from rotting mud or fruit, old books, and dew. Old wool turned to moths, frogs arose from raindrops, flies were generated from old snow. Leave a woman's hair in the sunlight and it turned to snakes. Basil between two tiles held together with horse dung and placed in the cellar for a month gave you scorpions. To get a bee? Well, first you beat to death a three year old bull..... not kidding, there's a poem to help you remember the lurid details. These theories come from a casual observation of the natural world without a systematic investigation. Yes, if you leave trash in a heap you will get maggots but in the 17th century the curious-minded were only just beginning to say, "Wait a minute...." Bolstered by a growing contingency of theologians who reminded that all life was created by God, the debate and investigation were just getting under way. These early entomologists developed ingenious experiments to test their theories but Merian went a step further by seeking the association of caterpillar with its environment, the food it ate, the pupae they formed, the life that emerged from the cocoon. She sought to solve such mysteries as why, when she observed a caterpillar spin a cocoon, flies would on occasion emerge instead of a moth or butterfly. The depiction of these real life contexts are what made her paintings so revolutionary. Merian sought to depict all life stages from larva through the imago with the host plants in one painting. Merian's constant experimentation with pigments and style paved the way for her to soon be a much sought after and well-respected illustrator, in addition to her contributions to the understanding metamorphosis. During this period in history, insects were associated with witchcraft and the Devil, so Merian had to tread lightly to avoid being ostracized, particularly while she lived in Germany, where witch burnings were still taking place.

Stages of an Emperor Moth: Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensis, Plate XI
Image via UH.edu

The book concludes with a very interesting discussion on just what does happen during metamorphosis. Ms. Todd points out that it is the caterpillar, not the butterfly, that is the engine of metamorphosis. Please, I can't even start talking about metamorphosis because it is so cool and I'll just never shut up. HOWEVER- did you know that a caterpillar is not just a goo-filled eating machine but that there are components of the imago, the finished butterfly, in the caterpillar before it winds itself into a cocoon? Oh please, it's all so fascinating! It's the caterpillar that does all the metamorphing- the butterfly just steps out and gets all the glory!

Image via The British Museum

The one disappointment about this book is that Merian's actual time in Suriname takes up only a small portion of the book. That disappointment most likely comes from my wanting to be there, to live vicariously through the descriptions of Merian's adventures and misadventures in the Amazon Jungle.

Image via Powell's Books

You can do an image search to explore more of Merian's paintings but I came across ArtCyclopedia that links to online museum collections which contain her prints.

 

For the kids, there's Summer Birds, Merian's story, by Margarita Engle.

Dover Publications also has a book and CD of Merian's prints.

Note- the books in this post link to Amazon but I am not an Amazon Associate and am not trying to sell you something so I can get one of those huge cuts of the pie from Amazon. The links take you to Amazon simply for your convenience should you be interested.

So OK, that's it. Go get a good book to read. See ya next time.

The King of Butterflies

 

Image by Tim Hamilton via Flickr



It's been since July that we've taken a look at a butterfly so we're long overdue. We all know this beauty. The king of butterflies, as it's been called, the monarch. Or The Monarch, Danaus plexippus. The Monarch Butterfly was discovered and named in 1874 by Samuel H. Scudder and has become widely known for its incredible migration. But it isn't that simple, of course.

Image via Monarch Watch



Not all Monarchs fly to Mexico and no single monarch makes the round trip. Some make the trip and get halfway back before dying. Monarchs being their migration south in the fall, beginning in September and October (they're on their way!). Those east of the Rockies overwinter in high elevation mountains in southern Mexico. Those on the western side of the Rockies migrate to southern California, in the Pacific Grove area and there are even some overwintering sites in southern Florida.

To complicate things further, not all monarch butterflies migrate. It's complicated. But not. Stick with me. Each year there are four generations of monarchs. A generation consists of the egg, the larva, the pupae, and the adult. Once the adult lays her eggs, she dies and the next generation commences.

The egg stage lasts 3-4 days and is therefore the shortest stage in the life cycle, barring anything unfortunate. Once hatched, the monarch begins the larval stage by eating it's egg case, which is full of vitamins and yummy things, and then moves on to consume its host plant, the milkweed. It is a caterpillar and monarch caterpillars eat only milkweed. And they eat tons of it. This larval stage is further divided into what is called an instar. Caterpillars grow very quickly and soon outgrow their own skin. We do the same but just get stretch marks. The caterpillar molts, or sheds its tight, striped suit for a newer, more roomy skin and will generally eat the skin it just shed for more delicious butterfly nutrients. There are five instars. This stage lasts 10-14 days, after which it pupates and forms a chrysalis.



Image via How Stuff Works



A monarch pupae is a thing of beauty. The caterpillar twists around and anchors its rear to a secure, protected surface and begins its final molt. But this time a caterpillar does not emerge- it is the pupae.



Image via Science Photo Library



At first the pupae doesn't look like anything, really. The caterpillar's skin splits to reveal a green sac of ... something. But look closer ...



New pupae. After about an hour, the pupa will reshape into the classic chrysalis form.
Image via Shady Oak Butterfly Farm



... it shows signs of the life to come. It is still a bit of a mystery regarding what actually goes on inside the chrysalis. Polite society says "the caterpillar re-structures itself," or "re-organizes".  In fact, and I'll just say it with apologies to my squeamish readers, the caterpillar turns to mush. It under goes metamorphosis- a complete transformation. It is very vulnerable during this early pupal stage so if you happen upon one, please don't touch it or move it. Skilled lepidopterists can sometimes "thread" a fallen pupae and hang it again but that's a tricky thing to try. Just leave the pupae or chrysalis as you find it. Nature is a cruel thing sometimes and only about 2 out of 100 eggs actually become butterflies.

A gentleman named Clay Ruth has some really neat and informative videos of a caterpillar pupating and contracting. Click here and scroll down toward to bottom of the page for the links.

Image Source

The function of the gold spots on the chrysalis are another mystery though the two we see in the middle of the photo above will be over the eyes of the adult butterfly. Pupae do not see. These spots are actually refracted light from the layers of the pupae. But did you know, that in addition to being able to see hints of the adult butterfly on the chrysalis, you can also determine the gender of the butterfly that will emerge? Oh it's cool.

Image via Monarch Watch

In the image above, the chrysalis is turned so that the cremaster, from which it hangs, is on the left. At the top of the chrysalis (seen here on the right) are a series of abdominal rings and a row of matched dots. Below the last row you can see a small crease on the abdominal ring. The butterfly that will eclose from this chrysalis will be a female. Males do not have this crease. How cool is that?

Image via The Inside Story

Immediately before the adult emerges, the chrysalis will become clear.

So finally, the adult emerges. And ain't she a beauty. Or he? Now how do we tell the difference? In many species, butterflies, birds, whatever, the females are more dull in coloration and markings or are larger in size. Not so the monarch. Both are equally marked and colored- loud and proud. So ...

Image via Monarch Watch

Male monarchs had thinner vein markings and, more easily seen, a small black dot on each hind wing. This dot is actually composed of special cells that produce pheromones to attract the ladies.

OK- that's one generation. Now let's get back to the migration. In the spring, overwintering monarchs become more active, their circadian and biological clocks teased into action by warmer temperatures, longer daylight, and the position on the sun. Those in California begin to disperse on the western side of the Rockies. Those in Mexico begin their journey northward. At some point, about halfway or so, these butterflies will stop to mate and lay eggs. End of generation one. Generation two, once hatched, will continue northward and will eventually produce the third generation. Adults of generations one through three live from two to six weeks but the fourth generation is special. This generation of monarchs is in a physiological state called "diapause". These individuals are reproductively immature (the females do not produce eggs and the males have undeveloped reproductive organs). Blame it on hormones, because that's what it is, but lower hormone levels cause the butterflies to live longer. This flight will live upwards of eight to nine months and is the generation that will make the trip south. As fall approaches, the lepidopterian clock makes a tick and the butterflies begin to get a hankering for Mexican food. Fourth generation monarchs have been shown to have higher levels of magnetic materials in their bodies. The Transvolcanic Mountain Range in Mexico, which hosts most overwintering sites, has high levels of magnetic anomalies and this geomagnetic mumbo-jumbo may be one way monarchs are able to find their way to their centuries old overwintering sites, even though they've never made the trip before. That plus the solar-powered circadian clocks, the sun's position, and some good old-fashioned divine miracle dust get our friends to their Mexican retreat where they literally hang out for the winter.

Image via Denver Botanic Gardens

Monarchs don't actually hibernate. They are calm and still in the cooler but frost-free climate of the southern Mexico mountain range but do flutter about on sunny days to find water. They do not feed while overwintering but live on the stores of fat they have built up.

Image via World Heritage Convention/UNESCO

The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in the Oyamel Forest has been named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and contains over half of the overwintering sites of the eastern migrating monarchs and receives between 60 million and 1 billion butterflies as year. Oyamel Forest was not confirmed at the destination of migrating monarchs until the 1970s.

The Biosphere is a conservation area. Monarch numbers to the area have been slowly declining. The threat to monarch populations comes from loss of habit (here in the United States at a rate of 6,000 acres a day), genetically modified crops, increasing use of pesticides and herbicides, and illegal logging in the Oyamel Forest. It is a dangerous thing, patrolling the forest in order to stop illegal logging. Lives have been lost. Meanwhile, the small communities in the area have come to rely heavily on the tourist dollar as more and more people come to see the butterflies in their winter lodgings. This conflict between tourism and logging frequently pits neighbor against neighbor.

The Monarch Watch has tons of information about monarchs and has initiated several educational and conservation programs. These programs include the Monarch Waystation program for providing habitat (you can even become a certified Waystation), research such as Monarch tagging, and butterfly gardening information to name just a couple of the resources available on their site. They have also launched "Bring Back The Monarchs", a program designed to reintroduce 20 species of milkweed as well as native nectar-producing flowers.

White varient Monarch.
Photo by Lisa via Flickr

I love to sit out on the back patio on sunny autumn days and watch for the monarchs. They hurry past in little trains, like a flittering parade, on their way to Mexico.


Image via BBC Radio



I know, this post has been WAY longer than I ever planned for our butterfly visits, which are supposed to be brief little "Hellos" but monarchs are simply incredible creatures and the whole life cycle-migration thing is fascinating. We didn't even talk about milkweed or puddling!

Click on the "Bring Back The Monarchs" logo in the sidebar if you would like to find out how you can help restore natural habitat for the king of butterflies. Thanks for coming by today-- hope it was fun. See ya next time!

Piano Key Butterfly

Photo via ImageKind



A secret joy of mine is to play the piano late at night when no one is at home. I especially love to do so in the summer, with the windows open. I sweat and drip all over the keys and as soon as I hear a car pull into the driveway the private concert is over. I stumbled across the Piano Key Butterfly the other day and now I will think of them every time I'm pounding away on my old William Knabe.



Image via Florida Educational Technology Clearinghouse

The Piano Key butterfly is on of the Heliconiie butterflies, or longwings, and are found mostly in the neotropics of South and Central America. The Piano Key is more commonly called the Postman butterfly, know in taxonomy terms as Heliconius melpomene. Melpomene, daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, was originally the Greek Muse of Singing but later became the Muse of Tragedy.



Image via University of Cambridge Artwork for Media





Heliconius melpomene are widespread throughout their range, feeding primarily on the passionflower vine. Doesn't that sound exotic? "I'm the Muse of Tragedy. I live on passionflower."

Image via Heidi Claire

The Postman is long-lived and easily managed in captivity. It has become a favorite with butterfly conservatories such as Butterfly World, The Butterfly Zoo , and The Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory. As more people have seen the Postman butterfly and noted that some have the striking white and black markings along the hindwing, they have been increasingly referred to as the Piano Key Butterfly. There is a huge variety in the markings of our longwing friend, partly because they are so closely related to the Heliconius erato, sometimes even crossbreeding.

It can all be very confusing if you start to explore genus, species, sub-species..... but you will surely not confuse the Piano Key Butterfly with a Butterfly Grand Piano.

Image via Piano World

The Butterfly Grand Piano was manufactured by Wurlitzer in the 1930's and 1940's. It was generally less the four feet deep and was intended to attract piano players living in smaller apartments. The lid was hinged down the middle as opposed to the side, hence it's name. These were limited production pianos and very few remain available. I've seen then going for $500 to $35,000. The smaller student versions had only 44 keys while the "full-size" butterfly had 73 keys. A full keyboard is 88 keys. Wurlitzer did make an electric version for a short time.



Image via Well-Tempered Forum



Anyway, I've strayed as usual but that's our butterfly friend for today.



 Have a grand day!

100 years of Silence- The Yellow-Crested Spangle

Well, this is The Butterfly Jungle, a place to celebrate beauty and surprises in life, so I thought it would be fun to periodically post a quick feature about one of our beautiful winged Lepidoptera wonders- common, rare, striking, beautiful, simple, huge, tiny. And what a better way to kick things off with a bit a joyful news, a butterfly that was sighted in 2009 after a 100 year absence. I give you the Yellow Crested Spangle (Papilio elephenor Doubleday)-



Image via ButterflyCorner.net



Kushal Choudhury, a lepodopterist researching swallowtail butterflies for his PhD, spotted a Yellow Crested Spangle in 2009 in the Ripu-Chirang Wildlife Sanctuary in the northeastern state of Assam, India (darker pink area on the map below). The sancutary is located in the extreme northwest of Assam.

Image via Wikimedia Commons


 The Yellow Crested Spangle, long thought by some to be extinct, is listed under Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972, which means "really really endangered and very protected."

Image via Wildlife Extra

Mr. Choudhury's photograph (above) of the mud puddling swallowtail is the first ever live photograph of the butterfly since it was initially described in 1845.

Photo by Naturhistorisches Museum Wien; Photographer Thomas Neubauer Via Butterfly Corner



So that's our beautiful Yellow Crested Spangle, making an appearance after a long, mysterious retreat. Don't you love it when there are new discoveries and re-discoveries in the world?

Thanks for visiting today- hope you enjoyed the butterfly!

Food & Housing For Butterflies- Late Season Business

You know we love our butterflies here and I just had to share this nifty Butterfly Home from Pam at Gingerbread Snowflakes. You can spend more money on a fancy "store-bought" home, but why?

Have you ever checked out  Dollar Store Crafts? It's a super cool site for the thrifty and creative. Go look- it's neat.

Photo by Shihmei Barger via Flickr Creative Commons

A great plant for attracting butterflies to your garden is Asclepias tuberosa, or Butterfly Weed. A member of the milkweed family, you've probably seen it in rock gardens or growing wild out in fields. It produces huge amounts of nectar, which makes it so attractive to a variety of butterflies, including the Monarch. Common milkweed, however, is your best bet if you specifically want to attract Monarchs. Butterfly Weed blooms from June through September.

Photo by milesizz via Flickr Creative Commons

You may be tempted to sneak out into someone's field and dig up a plant for your own garden. These are pretty prolific plants and surely no one would miss one little plant, right? The whole trespassing/stealing conversation aside, Butterfly Weed puts down a deep tap-root and does not transplant very well. Ask the property owner if you may collect seeds in the fall from the pods or find a seed company that sells them. An Internet search will turn up something for you.

Photo by Richard Bonnet via Flickr Creative Commons

August is a good time to get some Butterfly Weed of your own started from seed. Direct sow the seeds into your flower bed or planting area. This will get them started this year and allows for the cold period the seeds need. You will get some flowers in the spring and even more the following year. If you start your seeds in the spring, you will most likely not get flowers the first year but the plant itself will get nice and full and bushy. The second year will give you a good batch of flowers and lots of butterflies. These two sites have some good information on the plant:

Wildflower.org from the University of Texas at Austin (Gig 'em Aggies)

Butterfly Gardening and Conservation

Photo by Danny Barron via Flickr Creative Commons

There are many herbal, Native American, and folk uses for this plant, some legitimate, some not. Keep in mind that as a milkweed, all parts of this plant are toxic.


A word or two about handling butterflies ...

Photo by Bruce Tanner via Flickr Creative Commons

It's kind of a myth that touching a butterfly will rub off the wing scales and cause it to be unable to fly. Yes, touching the wings will rub off some of the scales. However, butterflies shed wing scales across their lifespan just doing regular butterfly things like nectaring, mating, puddling, and brushing against plants. Butterflies cannot replace lost scales, which is why you see clear patches on the wings of older butterflies. Rough handling, however, can break the wings or damage internal organs.

Photo by MJIPhotos via Flickr Creative Commons

I scoop butterflies off of our screened-in porch almost every day during the summer to keep them from thrashing themselves silly against the screen. Just cup them gently with both hands, holding them securely enough to keep them from fluttering wildly. When you open your hands they will generally fly away quickly but sometimes they will just sit there and you get a little surprise of being able to visit for awhile until they are ready to go. I would probably discourage most folks from handling butterflies. Just because ...

Butterflies will sometimes land on you either not realizing you are any different from any other handy perch or they may be attracted to the salts and minerals on your skin, generally from sweat.

So that about does it for today. Thanks for landing here today and hey- go out and enjoy the butterflies.