www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I was very kindly sent a video by John Bailey, who had been browsing this site. It shows, amongst other things, the remarkable process by which a Spanish festoon caterpillar prepares for pupation by spinning a silken girdle around the middle of its thorax and then, after pupation, works the girdle to the head, where it is caught on special hooks. He saw this procedure in each of his festoon pupae, so it wasn't just a one-off, and wondered if it was well documented.

I've copied the video to my server and it can be watched by right clicking on the link below and saving the file to your own computer (it won't play directly from my server, so you have to save it). It's an flv file, so you will also need a (free) flv player if you don't have one.

Please note: the timeline of John's commentary is not in synch with the video, for some reason, so you might need to rewind and watch the movie again to catch the moment when the pupa shrugs the girdle from thorax to head. It's worth watching twice - fascinating!!

Here is the file: http://www.guypadfield.com/movies/Flash ... Emerge.flv. Right click and save before playing.

Guy

That's amazing - thanks Guy (and, of course, John!).

I've not come across that before - ever - and always assumed that the "norm" for Papilionidae was a silken girdle that remained around the waist of the pupa.

Cheers,

- Pete

I thought I ought to get in on the act a bit so have registered.
The ova for these came from the hills behind Mojacar in Andalucia.
I would love to know whether the same thing happens with polyxena, the Southern Festoon.
John Bailey

Most interesting. I was well aware that the Spanish Festoon pupa had the silken girdle at the head, but had no idea how it got there. Your observations may well be original. Apparently the Southern Festoon does not perform the same trick, but has the girdle in the usual place. See http://www.lepinet.fr. While researching this I also came across the interesting information that the Italian race cassandra has been raised to specific status on the basis of differences in mitochondrial DNA and the male genitalia. See: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zerynthia_cassandra, and also http://www.leps.it.
Edit. However Lafranchis has a photo showing a pupa with the girdle at the head, so some inconsistency evidently.
Misha

Thanks for these links, Misha.

I trust Matsukaze will come back from his imminent trip to Andalucía with photos of ripe Spanish festoon pupae so we can see if there are any exceptions in that species, too. The picture on Lepinet.fr seems to show a southern festoon pupa that is not attached at the tip of the abdomen, but only round the thorax. That would presumably make it very difficult/dangerous to perform the Bailey Manoeuvre and might explain why the girdle couldn't be slipped up to the hook.

Guy

Well I will try. I just hope it is easier than looking for hairstreak eggs or the larvae of Apatura iris postindustrialensis