what to do with small white butterfly pupa

[magpiemoth]

Hello,
I have two small white butterfly pupa on kale, which I inadvertently picked in the greenhouse without seeing the pupa on them - they are the green form. I was just wondering what I can do to keep them safe please? I think I found them on the 8th Aug, kept the kale fresh for as long as possible thinking they would emerge, but now wondering if they might over winter as pupa? Found in Cornwall. Is it safe to remove the pupa from the leaf and re-attach and then keep them until they emerge? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks. P.S. I have seen one of them twitching a couple of times!! Cheers

[Vince Massimo]

Hi magpiemoth,

Firstly, I would advise minimising any disturbance to the pupae, so leave them on the kale, but make sure it doesn't curl over the pupae as it dries. Put the pupae in an aerated pot and cover it with netting. Make sure the pot has drainage holes in the bottom in order to allow any rainwater to escape and put it in a sheltered spot outside. Keep it out of direct sunlight and make sure it cannot cannot blow over. There is still a chance that the butterflies will emerge in the next few weeks, so make sure that there are some twigs in the pot so that the butterflies can climb up to expand and dry their wings. Twitching is a sign that the pupa is still alive, but look out for colour changes which will indicate that something is happening. They need to be checked on a regular basis in case they hatch and need to be released. Please keep us advised if anything changes or post some photos if possible.

Vince

[magpiemoth]

Hi Vince,

Thank you so much for your reply. I had noticed the colour had started to change on one of them yesterday, left them in a safe spot outside and one of them emerged!! I am so pleased. The only thing was as he was drying on a nearby post in the sunshine, there was a tiny blob of (what I presume to be) haemolymph as it was orange, from the tip of his tail/abdomen. Do you know if this is normal? He seemed to continue to dry out and flew off, so hopefully is ok. Started to notice a slight colour change in the second pupa today, so will follow your advice and hopefully he will emerge healthy soon. Thanks for the help much appreciated.

[Padfield]

The blood-like liquid is meconium - the excreted waste products the developing butterfly could not eliminate from the pupa before eclosion.

I was interested in your post, magpiemoth, not least because Vince kindly helped me with my own small white pupae last year. These pupated in October and hatched as butterflies in April this year. Your freshly emerged butterflies will produce that wintering generation of pupae. And by coincidence, one of my wild large white caterpillars (that had been feeding on garlic mustard near my house) pupated yesterday on the wall of my house - or at least, I first noticed it yesterday. I don't know if it will hatch as a butterfly this year or hibernate as a pupa. There are lots more to come too, which will be pupating near the garlic mustard patch soon.

Yesterday's large white pupa was not just twitching but actively wriggling as I photographed it. Yesterday it looked like this:



The tail is off to the right because of the wriggle. Today, when I looked discretely, the abdomen was perfectly in line.

Guy