I just saw a post on ig on how a woman did a wing transplant on a butterfly and I was so curious on how she did it. I’m not sure if she did it specifically like this but I appreciate what you’re doing. It’s so sweet, and now the butterfly can live without the burden of having a broken wing not being able fly😭🫶🏾
Such a brilliant idea to transplant another butterfly’s wing! Not to mention how delicately you immobilized poor fella during the procedure. Thank you for this heartwarming story :)
Thank you for your kind comment! I am so glad you enjoyed the video and that the story brightened up your day! It certainly made me overjoyed when he flew too :)
type of glue was used to attach the doner wing to the damaged wing?? I have some monarchs & one has a damaged wing & I want to gix it the same as in this video. dose anyone know what glue I should use? &thank you for this video too, its swonderful! 💗🦋💗🦋💗🦋
Thank you so much! You might enjoy my Peru videos too with more close encounters with butterflies :) ru-vid.com/group/PLHa3lmvgVRdoyo9MUNjMXwsWqhYjBaRPc
Yes you have to be gentle holding the wings not to damage them😄 However, it is the membranes of the wings that are important. A butterfly can lose its scales and carry on flying as normal, contrary to popular belief.
I was overwhelmed watching this video at how you saved this beautiful butterfly life by your good intentions Thank you so much for sharing this video with us all 👃🌟💜🌟👃
Man, what a great video. Music too. I was wondering, I thought butterflies had a thin coating of some kind of dust on their wings, that was super fragile and necessary for them to fly. Are these some kind of heavy duty butterflies without that?
Thank you so much! Yes butterflies do have scales on their wings, which seems like a dusty substance. It is , however, not necessary for them to fly. That is a common misconception. The scales give the wings their colours, and are on a clear membrane underneath. In some butterflies the membrane doesn't have many scales on it and the wings are transparent! Maybe I should do a video explaining this sometime!
This is great! What kind of glue do you use? I am thinking of doing something like this just a lot smaller to cover a bee's butt after it lost its spike.
Thank you! I used a contact adhesive. That sounds cool, although the bee will likely have suffered irreparable damage if it has lots its spike so I don't think sticking it back on will help sadly
@@Butterflying_with_James The interesting thing is that if a seemingly dead bee has a certain weigth (certain amount of fluid inside the body is left), you can revive it by regularly breathing at it (like CPR). Just hold it gently by the wings an breath in its direction from maybe 20 cm away. If there's enough body fluid left, one of the legs will start twitching and after that all of them will move and the bee will come alive (no kidding). I did that when I was little after seeing a TV show about first aid and wondering why we don't do this for insects. Imaging my surprise when it actually worked (again, I'm not kidding)! Unfortunately, I didn't think about the missing stinger so I just left the bee alone after reviving it. Today, I suppose it must have actually died afterwards because of the whole in their body and the evaporation of body fluid. I mention this because this method worked more than once but not for every bee. The ones with less weight (I suppose more loss of body fluids) didn't come back. So I wondered if keeping the whole left by the lost stinger closed maybe the bee would stay alive but I suppose there are inner organs that are damaged after the bee loses it's sting.
Hi James! I found your channel while randomly scrolling through wildlife videos. Of course I subscribed to you! And it's amazing how you took the time to help this pre precious butterfly 🦋. So glad the procedure worked. We have many butterflies 🦋🦋🦋in my home state of Florida USA 🇺🇸, but I don't think I have ever seen one like this. What a beautiful creature! Thank you so much for sharing...and caring! See you soon! ❤️🦋🦋🦋❤️
Thank you so much for your comment!-and the sub:) The time and effort taken helping him was all worth it seeing him fly again! Yes the citrus swallowatail is stunning! It is mainly restricted to the Afrotropical region, but I am sure you have some other lovely butterflies in Florida too!
@@Butterflying_with_James Hello James! Believe it or not, your reply literally just popped up on my phone and I see it's from 13 days ago. You tube is a bit behind sometimes! 🤣Yes, we do have beautiful 🦋 butterflies in Florida. I suppose every place does....such delicate and unique creatures. Have a great day! Thank you again for helping the butterfly 🦋! Willie says hello! 💗🐈⬛🐾🐾
GoldenShrike is soooo right thanks. I see you were working with a lime butterfly and i have a dead one here to what i think is preserved. Thank you for giving it another chance to live
"Bug people" doing good things always warms my heart. I save ladybeetles, not butterflies, and observe ants, but I appreciate all of the creepy crawlies, and pretty flyers, as well.
Would it not be easier to place the butterfly in a fridge to make it sleep and then perform the wing replacement as it would not require being pulled down and possibly harmed
Yes that would be easier, but you would somehow have to keep it cold during the procedure too. Here in our climate it would warm up again very quickly and we would still need to secure it down. But yes that is a good idea thank you
The glue may have some effect, but it is necessary. The butterfly could fly fine with a small (negligible) bit of glue, but could not fly at all before. Butterflies do not have nerves in their wings, but yes you do still have to be gentle handling them so as not to damage the delicate wing membrane further.
I am not sure exactly what that variety of Pentas is called. Here is a video with more information on that Pentas in case it helps you identify it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gZtV9q4CE8Q.html
Yes that is possible, I have heard even of feathers being cut up into the shape of artificial wings. To get the exact thin, light, strong and flexible ideal design of a replacement wing, however, it is easiest just to use a real butterfly wing:)
This should have a billion views man, amazing work!! Serious question though won't the wing just die? If glued how does blood circulate I know bugs organs sit in blood like substance but never thought of how it's circulated through there body to their extremities. Hope it works out! 🙏💙
Thank you so much!! Please do share it and all maybe it will get there :) Onto the question... Butterfly wings are similar to our hair, they aren't alive. The veins are used when the butterfly has first hatched and haemolymph is pumped into them to inflate the wings. Then that haemolymph solidifies to allow the wings to dry and harden so they are strong enough to fly. So once the butterfly is flying, there is no longer any fluid pumping around in the wings. I hope that makes sense?
@@InscentiveAdvice yes it did survive several more days than it would have without the procedure (which is quite a lot considering their lifespan is only about 3 weeks)
Yes you are right it was damaged. Butterflies only need their forewings for basic flight so fixing the top wing was sufficient to help it to fly again:)
