The First Pupae Arrive...

As the weather has started to heat up, the greenhouse is coming along nicely, with many of the plants in full growth, and flowers starting to appear. As it's been almost two years since I last had any butterflies gracing my tropical greenhouse, I have been itching to get some, and so I ordered my first batch for the year.

The chrysalids arrive, carefully snuggled amongst their cotton wool padding in a well wrapped box. These need to be suspended to make it easier for the emerging butterflies to crawl out and expand their wings. This is easily done, and I have used nothing more than an old shoe box, some small garden canes, and a glue gun. Care must be taken when gluing the chrysalids, and only the silken pad should be touched with glue, unless this is missing, in which case only the very tip of the cremaster should be glued to the canes.

The pupae of three different species of butterflies are suspended from garden canes to await emergence.

The pupae ordered so far are:
Emerald Swallowtail (Papilio palinurus) - back row
Common Mormon (Papilio polytes) - middle row
Leopard Lacewing (Cethosia cyane) - front row

The pupae do not take long to emerge - usually emerging between 2-7 days after receipt. The only thing that they require after being suspended is to be kept somewhere warm, and out of direct sunlight. They also benefit from a light misting with water, to help keep the air around them humid, and to prevent them from drying out.