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A friend of mine had a Peacock settling on his finger with proboscis apparently separated. Can anyone explain?

ATB

Peter

This is something I have occasionally seen in my lab-reared populations of Speckled Woods. The butterfly emerges from the pupa with the two sides of its proboscis (i.e. left and right) already separated, and must effectively "zip them up" at the same time as it inflates its wings. On occasion, one or other half of the proboscis can get wrapped around something - either in the environment, or I've even seen it caught on the butterfly's own leg or wing - and prevent the zipping-up from taking place. Unfortunately the life-expectancy of my Speckled Woods when this happened was extremely short, and I suspect the same will be true of this Peacock.

The only time I have seen this was in a freshly emerged Chalkhill Blue in 2018. At one point, he seemed to be using each half to stroke each of his eyes. Unfortunately, his patience for an attendant ant wore thin and he flew off. I don't know how common it is for freshly emerged adults to have the proboscis split like this or if it will fuse and function correctly.

It's not too an uncommon sight I find but given this Peacock managed to overwinter and survive until now this will have been a recent 'injury', perhaps merely a symptom of it's age rather than anything more sinister.

Thanks, CallumMac. I like your theory that it could be kind of deformity but it appears that the butterfly survived the winter

Thanks, Wolfson. Yes it would make sense if this happened just after emergence.

Thanks, Paul. I suspect you are right that it is probably a symptom of old age, the Peacock having apparently survived the winter.

ATB

Peter