Hibernating Painted Lady

[Hamearis]

Hi
I work in a large Aerospace Factory, and one of the guys on the shop floor has called my attention to a hibernating Painted Lady he has found on his workbench.
It is in an environment 50' from the nearest door, and never seeing natural light. There is a constant temp. of 20C.
Just how unusual is this?
Sorry about the quality of the photo, but it is with the firm's dreadful P & S (or P ofS as it ought to be).

Hamearis

[Neil Hulme]

Hi Hamearis,
It looks like your Painted Lady is in dire need of a spring clean! Butterflies prefer a constant temperature during hibernation, but this would be unusually warm to keep something in such a prolonged state of inactivity. Are there any signs of life? I fear that 'he has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the workbench 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!!' - On the other hand he might wake up and fly off!
Neil

[Chris]

he certainly looks as though he's no longer a going concern. Any statements to the contrary are now redundant, etc... ah, God bless Monty Python...

[Hamearis]

I have investigated further.
It is an EX painted lady. Bereft of life, it rests in peace.
Beautiful plumage though.............

[Martin]

The dead parrot sketch ...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 4392087542