Tiny Butterfly - Pupated Prematurely?

[ilsa]

When I saw this cat hanging in J, I noted that it looked like it was only a young 4th instar. In any case, it was much, much smaller than all of the other 5th instars that were preparing to pupate. But pupate it did, and normally. Today she eclosed and she looks normal. She has all her parts and a normal coloring, I think, but she's very small. I don't know. Maybe she doesn't look normal, after all. Please look at the pictures. (Sorry, they're not the best.) Something tells me this isn't a good thing and it would not be a good idea to encourage her to try to make the trek South. Opinions?

[Mona Miller]

She really is a beautiful, perfect little Monarch. She may not get south, but are you going to release her?

[Wyvern]

When I saw this cat hanging in J, I noted that it looked like it was only a young 4th instar. In any case, it was much, much smaller than all of the other 5th instars that were preparing to pupate. But pupate it did, and normally. Today she eclosed and she looks normal. She has all her parts and a normal coloring, I think, but she's very small. I don't know. Maybe she doesn't look normal, after all. Please look at the pictures. (Sorry, they're not the best.) Something tells me this isn't a good thing and it would not be a good idea to encourage her to try to make the trek South. Opinions?

I get them a lot. I used to think it had to do with dwindling food supplies or parasitic fly infestations forcing them to pupate early, but that is not always the case. This year I made sure all my cats were over fed and still had small ones eclose. I actually had one pupate while at the upper end of 3rd instar size...she eclosed perfect but micro-sized (even compared to small monarchs). Way too tiny to stick a tag on.. she'd tip right over like a paper weight. LOL.

[BlizzardNole]

She is such a cute litte thing....she's so small you might want to keep her.

[ilsa]

I just don't know if I should release her or not! I've noticed that her proboscis is permanently extended, and I'm not entirely certain about this, but the two "halves" of the proboscis still seem to be widely separated. I will have to examine her more closely today and see if she can/will eat.

[skates4marty]

A friend had a few small B's last year -- maybe 5 out of 100. I didn't see them; she said they were about 30% undersized. One theory: she gets most of her milkweed from the roadside. Maybe pollution residue stunts growth? Re: proboscis: I'm not an expert, but a proboscis that doesn't zip is a sign of Oe.

[dandjtaylor]

We had two "tiny's" this year. In fact, my wife named the first one Tiny. It was in early August just when we first stared tagging and we left her untagged. We felt like the tag would indeed throw off her aerodynamics due to offestting of her Center of Gravity. However, we saw her for about two weeks and even caught our wild mail resident, "the Patroller", carrying her around and she even layed a few eggs in the yard. She was very easy to ID due to her American Lady size. She may not make it south, but she certainly has a chance at a decent life for a few weeks. Set her free is my opinion.

[ilsa]

Re: proboscis: I'm not an expert, but a proboscis that doesn't zip is a sign of Oe.

Oh, dear. What do you think?

[texas butterfly]

Is that a slide of cells from that butterfly?

Looks like something is going on. I'd guess OE???

I'm assuming the small things are OE spores???

Trying to find links of photos to confirm. Not finding anything so far.

I wouldn't do anything drastic until you here from some of the more knowledgeable people here.

This would be a good chance to learn from this. If that is your picture, great picture.

[texas butterfly]

Here is link that I found:

http://www.uga.edu/monarchparasites/Cla ... index.html

[Mona Miller]

Those are OE spores. What you look for is football shapes on the scales.

[ilsa]

Here is link that I found:

http://www.uga.edu/monarchparasites/Cla ... index.html

Thanks for that link, texas. Yes, that's my photo of my tiny girl's abdomen specimen. Going by the UGA guidance, I would say she has a mild infection. I'm thinking I should release her, though she's not likely to make it very far/long. I certainly can't and won't tag her.

Ilsa

[Mona Miller]

I wonder if the OE caused her to smaller. It does affect their health.

[ilsa]

Yes, I had that same question. But she's not nearly as infected as my full-sized, crumpled-wing male.

[Mona Miller]

I wish there was some way the adults could be sterilized. But, eggs can be sterilized. I haven't tried this yet.

http://www.butterflyfunfacts.com/bleach ... h-eggs.php
One of the butterfly farmers posted this to the main Monarch Watch website. It is a video on sterilizing eggs. She said you can hit pause to stop to read if you need to slow it down.

Don't put your hands in bleach. Use gloves.

[ilsa]

Fascinating video! Thanks. I can't believe how many eggs were on those leaves!

When I started getting interested in Monarchs 3 years ago, I had no idea about all of this! I am so thankful that we have access to resources and info to allow us to help them. But what a learning curve! This is no child's game!

[Mona Miller]

I started by helping provide my son's transition class with caterpillars. He was 5 years old. Now he is 21. I started taking classes through the USDA/Audubon Naturalist Society. One of my favorites was the class on Butterflies. I raise hundreds every year and not just Monarchs.

[Monarch MaMa]

Mona, did you copy the recipe for bleaching monarch eggs from the video? The person who posted that video has removed it from Youtube & its not available to see.

[ilsa]

Mona, did you copy the recipe for bleaching monarch eggs from the video? The person who posted that video has removed it from Youtube & its not available to see.

That whole Website, http://www.butterflyfunfacts.com, appears to be down. Maybe the video will be available again when the Website comes back up.

[Mona Miller]

I think you are probably right about that web page being down.

http://www.butterfliesetc.com/for-butte ... ion-galore

You can email Edith on the main website and she would probably share the recipe with you on how to sterilize eggs.