#butterfly pupae

[farmerstrend]

Butterfly Farming in Kenya: The Untapped Potential

Kenya is home to a thriving butterfly farming industry. The industry began in the 1990s as a way to generate income and conserve the country’s forests. Today, the industry is worth millions of dollars and employs thousands of people. However, the industry is not without its challenges. Many farmers complain that the government is not doing enough to support the sector. They also say that the…

[revretch]

We should really appreciate the variety in pupae more.

Like, here we have flies doing the absolute bare minimum. It's just a pod. Fly grows inside a pod, that's it.

Butterfly chrysalises seem to have the same minimalism...but then you look closely, and can see the future butterfly parts are all outlined.

And then you have beetles just making a whole balloon animal shape to grow into.

(Beetle pupa source: http://maria.fremlin.de/stagbeetles/pupation/pupation_captivity.html )

[onenicebugperday]

Epistrophus white morpho butterfly, Morpho epistrophus, Nymphalidae

Found in eastern South America

Photo 1 by ulisesbalza, 2 by jjbonannod, 3 by deboas, 4 by vinicius_s_domingues, 5 by gabrielamsouza, 6 by fredericosonntag, 7 by sitiocandeias, 8 by laura-_-, and 9-10 by calydna

[crowbitz]

my freakshow butterfly girl i keep doodling

[puppyeared]

sketches for sleight's van, the Magicmobile ^_^

[wise-emperor]

[cheezyharu]

Spitefully redesigned Pupa in a single day cause I can do that now I guess.

[redrawthecolorlessworld]

damn

[creative-chaos-apparently]

A MidAutumn’s Metamorphosis

[blackswallowtailbutterfly]

Papilio polyxenes--Black Swallowtail Butterfly Part 1

Been some years since I've raised these, but it was a fantastic experience to do so! All photos are mine, most unedited, except for the one on the chicory plant because it was pretty dull lighting and I wanted to bring out the colour.

They caterpillars were munching away in my grandmother's raised herb garden, so I took them in and raised them. Then when they hatched I put them on various flowers in her garden. In college when I brought the last of the season's pupas with me, I put the ones that hatched on the wildflowers outside.

The caterpillars have five instars (some people say only three; I say they aren't paying enough attention). They start off looking like bird shit and with each moult they get stripier until they're green or white with black stripes that have yellow spots. Then eventually they choose a spot, take a massive shit, string themselves up, do a dance, shuck their skin and then harden.

The pupas are either green or brown depending on their environment. They aren't completely immobile. They will jerk about if something irritates them.

When the butterflies hatch it takes a little time for them to work up to flying. In that window, you can stage them and get your photos in before they take off.

The darker adults with the larger blue areas are female and the ones with the broader yellow stripes are the males. Most of mine ended up female. I personally think the females are prettier with their black and blue, but the males are still very attractive butterflies as well. See him face on the red geraniums. :)

Hand pictured is mine. lol

[visualflood]

Metamorphosis captured: fascinating pictures of butterfly pupae by Levon Biss — Visualflood Magazine

[revretch]

All the other moths make these elaborate cocoons in all different shapes--some even make one big cocoon together!--but butterflies just had to be like, "Nah, I'll just be super hard"

[onenicebugperday]

Two-tailed pasha, Charaxes jasius, Nymphalidae

Photo 1 by johnnyrandom, 2 by ronald63, and 3-7 by mazzeip

[jswaltherphotos]

Amazing how the color changed with the angle and amount of light!

[crowbitz]

fam pic