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| Blue Morphos waiting for their wings to dry. |
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| Butterflies to be released. |
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| Celeste feeding Nagini. |
I started off my day by saying good morning to all of the insects on display and worked on their enclosures to make sure everything was prepared before it opened at 10. After I wiped off condensation and replaced some food, I did a butterfly release. There weren't many that had hatched, but the ones that did were beautiful! There were a lot of Blue Morphos, a few Glasswing butterflies, and one big 'Three-Tailed Tiger Swallowtail'. After I released them into the Conservatory, I topped up the nectar for the torches and hangers. We then tried to feed Nagini the snake (I'm assuming they're a Green Tree Python) with a thawed mouse, but they were
not interested- Celeste assured me that this was because Nagini might be ready to moult soon!
Next up on the list of to-dos was to change out the substrate in the katydid enclosure- greeeat. Just when I thought I was done with them! The goal was to collect all the eggs they'd laid, which look like long, thin white seeds. After removing the old substrate (which is literally just shredded coconut fibres) that held the eggs, we placed fresh substrate into their enclosure. Thankfully, the katydids didn't scream at us. Celeste then had me sort through the dirt to locate the eggs, which was an incredibly tedious task. After about 30 minutes, I ended up with like 12 eggs. Yas!
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| Finding katydid eggs. |
Done sorting through the dirt, we moved on to a shipment of chrysalides that Celeste said had been delayed for a day or two. She showed me to the dock where they received packages, obtained the shipment, and after guiding me back to the Chrysalis Corner (through a secret passage, I may add), we opened it up. Unfortunately, since the package had been delayed, there were many butterflies that had tried to hatch but didn't make it. Celeste marked this down, and if there were unsuccessful hatches or many hatched but were unable to fly, they would stop buying from the seller. Oddly enough, this package actually came from Penang, Malaysia, which I have visited before! In addition, they currently purchase butterflies from all over the world, and get 3-5 shipments
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| Glueing down new pupa. |
each week! The HMNS's budget for purchasing butterflies is about $60,000 dollars per year, and this shipment of butterflies (of 200 or more) cost $700. That's a lot of butterflies. After sorting through the package, Celeste explained how they mount the butterflies onto the styrofoam boards, briefly reminding me of what Kaeli had mentioned about this process. Since there wasn't enough time to glue all of them down, that concluded my day at the HMNS!
Facts I learned:
- Butterfly financing
- There is a butterfly mafia in the Philippines, and the headwoman manages the butterfly farms all around the country
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Do you remember seeing these kind of butterflies in Penang?
ReplyDeleteAre visitors to this center walking around the space where you work?
I don't remember seeing many in Penang, but they do have a lot of butterfly farms. And yes, the butterfly garden opens at 10:00 AM on every other day except Monday (opens at noon).
DeleteThose are awesome photos, especially the ones hanging from the ceiling! So the chrysalis come ready to hang and then open and then be released? Are they released into a closed environment, or just out into the world?
ReplyDeleteYes that is correct! But they are released only into the butterfly garden since they are mostly tropical butterflies. The USDA does not allow foreign butterflies to be released into the wild due to agricultural reasons.
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