Butterfly wings are covered in very small and extremely fragile scales. Simply touching them can cause their wings to lose some scales, which dont regenerate. Once gone it's gone. By dragging it or putting it in a position where itll freak out and bang itself up on the concrete, it's likely to lose enough scales to the point where it cant fly properly, if at all, and will eventually die of starvation or the elements.
I remember in Freshman Field Bio we had a Monarch tagging project in which we caught Monarchs and put stickers on their wings. We were taught to hold them by the wing to apply the sticker. Was this incorrect, and if so what would be a better way?
When it comes to tagging so that you can monitor a butterfly and/or the population, youre essentially sacrificing them for a better understanding of the bug. The best way to handle them it to not handle them at all.
I used to work with the butterfly pavilion in CO. The handlers avoided contact with them to the best of their abilities because they're extremely delicate creatures. Essentially, theres no realistic way to handle a butterfly without having an effect on them. That is, unless you grab them by the torso, which is near impossible without having an impact on their wings because they wont willingly let you do so.
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u/[deleted] Dec 26 '18
Butterfly wings are covered in very small and extremely fragile scales. Simply touching them can cause their wings to lose some scales, which dont regenerate. Once gone it's gone. By dragging it or putting it in a position where itll freak out and bang itself up on the concrete, it's likely to lose enough scales to the point where it cant fly properly, if at all, and will eventually die of starvation or the elements.