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Post by jamesd on Feb 21, 2011 22:44:00 GMT -8
I was wondering why a butterfly or moth wouldn't survive in captivity any longer than a few days.
(Yes, the zoos do it) But lets say this butterfly is in a jar, rather than a butterfly house, and it doesn't have any food.
-What kills it?
Is it that the small space causes the butterfly to go crazy and die of stress?
Or maybe it's no food that does it. (But a few days isn't much! We can live for months with no food).... I suppose we're not butterflies.
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Post by africaone on Feb 22, 2011 0:03:33 GMT -8
- food is of course a first answer. I kept Charaxes for weeks in captivity, feeding it manually each day.
- mating is also important. After mating many moths or butterflies died. the reason why in captivity so many that born in cage doesn't die so quickly (if kept properly).
- of course stress and unusual condition (no sun, dry, etc, ...) doesn't help
Thierry
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Post by jamesd on Feb 22, 2011 0:48:58 GMT -8
Africaone,
The reason I was asking this is because, the other-day I captured some hawk moths, which died because I put off mounting them (leaving them in container) for 2 days.
Also I was thinking about the pupae that I have at the moment, weather I would be able to keep them in captivity right through the adult stage so that I could get them to breed and start another generation. Would that be difficult?
Anyway, thanks.
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Post by nomihoudai on Feb 22, 2011 2:55:23 GMT -8
But lets say this butterfly is in a jar, rather than a butterfly house, and it doesn't have any food.
-What kills it?
>> it doesn't have any food.
-That kills it!
A butterfly, or moth like a hawkmoth needs huge amounts of sugar to power itself for it's flight you need to feed them daily. Furthermore you should never put them in a jar, they will fly against the walls until they are dead. Make a large cage out of Moskito nets. If you hang them to the ceiling you can make a large cage for just a few $
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Post by africaone on Feb 22, 2011 5:45:27 GMT -8
Agree with Claude
I the case of hawkmoth, the cage must be large and the best is to put flowers (not cut, in earth) inside the cage. The difficulty will be to have enough as it need great ammount of nectar. also only for hawmoths that feeds on flowers of course.
I don't know the technic but it is also possible to make artificial flowers with artificial diet. Or may be (??) to try to feed them with hands with artificial diet like we do for Nymphalids (I done it with Charaxes and Euptera).
Thierry
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Post by nomihoudai on Feb 22, 2011 5:51:42 GMT -8
You can't put enough flowers for the hawkmoth inside a single cage, the best in captivity is to feed them like little babies. I never did it but saw many topics about it in other fora. You must take a siringue with sugar water and then put the hawk moth on your lap and feed it like with a baby bottle.
For butterflies like Nymphalidae you need a color to attract them to the sugar solution, then you can make little glas pipes filled with the sugar solution and around it you make an artificial flower in different colors.
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Post by africaone on Feb 27, 2011 2:50:48 GMT -8
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