Red Admirals 'hibernating' in my home

[kirstymc]

Looking for some help/advice/awareness - a couple weeks ago, after moving a picture from the hall way, we discovered what we thought were 2 moths tightly packed together, attached to the wall where what would have been the bottom/back of the picture. We believed them to be either sleeping, or dead. After a few minutes one of the 'moths' began to move and we quickly realised they were in fact red admirals.
Rather than leave them to the elements, and our desire to put them back into the state we found them in, we managed to manouevre them into a shoe box. They are still there today, tightly packed together, and look to be sleeping.

Depsite several hours of searching online, I'm unable to find any definite information that confirms this hibernating behaviour. I'm hoping someone can confirm for me our experience, what the butterflies are in fact going through, and how we should support them when the warmer months come back around (should we plan on releasing them at a specific time? will they survive?).

any advice, guidance is very much appreciated!
K.

[Pete Eeles]

Hi Kirsty - there's some explanation at:

http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/faq.php

Cheers,

- Pete