Butterfly Breeding

Butterflies are the most beautiful insects on earth. They gain energy to fly from sun’s warmth. If a butterfly is sitting and spreading its wings and it slowly closes them, it means the butterfly is soaking its wing in sun. Many insect lovers opt for butterfly breeding as they find it interesting.

The important thing about breeding Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) is to discover the food plant of the particular species. Provide a constant fresh supply of this in a large cage made of soft nylon mesh and the adults will lay eggs on the leaves. These hatch into caterpillars and in late summer they will pupate, either on the plant, the side of the cage or in a dish of peat on the floor. Collect the pupae and lay them in labeled rows in the corrugations of apiece of cardboard in an open topped box for the winter. Spray them gently each day (but do not let them become too damp or warm) and in the spring put the box in a butterfly cage with pieces of twig resting on the floor and propped against the side so that the newly emerged insects can climb up them to inflate their wings. If you put a shallow dish containing a piece of sponge rubber soaked in a sugar solution on the floor of the cage, the adults will drink this nectar.

Here is the description of procedure for breeding butterfly

• Hold the butterflies with care as they are delicate. The male wings are larger and colorful than the female ones. The body of female is shorter and fatter than that of the male in order to carry eggs.
• Provide a large area for butterflies to live and mate in. The area can be a tank or a large glass container that allows air inside. Food and plants should be kept inside the container. Sunlight is essential for butterfly to live. So, the container should be such that the supply of sunlight is not prohibited.
• Put a male and female butterfly together in the container or a tank. Once they realize they are there together they start breeding naturally.
• During butterfly breeding process, one can notice that male butterfly gets attached himself to the female one. Male insect has two clasps at the end of his abdomen. This clasp allows him to connect to the female’s abdomen in order for them to mate. They will face opposite directions during the mating period.
• Place male butterfly in another tank. The female will lay her eggs as they fertilize. The eggs will either come out in clusters or separately. The female butterfly will lay eggs on the leaves of plants. The next day one can place female into another tank or can keep in the same tank to mate again.
• Female butterfly can lay up to 500 eggs at a time.

Butterfly breeding is essential because this is the step to preserve their species as butterflies life span is of 2 weeks.