www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

whats the right tempreture to have adult butterflies in my breeding tank? My tank is rather large and want to breed some:

Small Tortoiseshells
Small Copper
Peacock

These are in my area and need just to know how to keep adult until they breed. How should I feed them?

I sucessfully breeded 60 white ermine last year, saved the caterpillars from a demolished glasshouse that was going to be taken away.

Well Dave where to start
Butterflies obviously like it warm and airy. If its a glass tank or green house then forget it. It will get to hot and this will kill the butterflies. They really need a large cage made with netting sides. Butterflies love nectar so you can feed them with cut flowers. Plants growing in a pot are better. Cut flowers will require changing daily. Adult butterflies can also be fed with a weak solution of sugar/honey and water mix.
There is a lot more information on the web and books about breeding butterflies and moths which go into far more detail than i can do here.
Some species need more involved treatment than others depending on their life cycle. The species you mention though are easy enough for a beginner. Don't forget caterpillars eat a tremendous amount of food so you will need to make sure you have enough to sustain them.
Hope that helps
Lance

Hi Dave,

My experience is that most species are best bred outdoors in as natural conditions as you can provide. So I agree with Lance that using a cage with netted sides is best. In addition, it's best to use growing foodplant. Some plants (such as nettle) wither very quickly. The temperature will sort itself out

Cheers,

- Pete

I making a large box with net sides and no bottom and a net top. I will (warm days) put th box over a patch of nettles and flowers and put butterflies in it and let them fy around, get nectar and breed, like outdoors.

Sounds good. Let us know how you get on