butterflies

[michael foley]

is it ok to feed my p.miranda wild butterflies because ther is so many in my garden??? and im sure she would scoff them

[kev hall]

depends on sp,some do really struggle enough out in the wild.as long as you don't feed her the last surviving of the sp,I'm sure she would love them

[michael foley]

ok thanks i was realy only worried about my t, because was a drunk nite anbd thought i would throw a butterfly in the tank and see wat happend i have a video if u want 2 see?

[kev hall]

its only natural prey,but the only concern is pesticide. love to see video tho

[Clinton Hogben]

is it ok to feed my p.miranda wild butterflies because ther is so many in my garden??? and im sure she would scoff them

Tried that one a while back I have a garden full of common cabbage white butterflies but the L para turned it down not quite sure why (perhaps they don't have cabbage whites in Brazil)
she did tap it with her front legs a couple of times as if not quite sure what to do with it then ignored it

Doh

would like to see the video of yours doing the business with one

all the best

[James Box]

i'm not sure about adult butterflies, but i know that many caterpillars are very toxic.
whether or not that follows through into adulthood is another question, but i'd prefer to see it answered before i fed any new prey to a T, especially wild.
also butterflies are struggling as was said before, i'm sure there must be more common and prolific prey to choose from?

[Nick L]

There are no poisonous species of British butterfly with the exception of a very rare vagrant the Monarch (Danaus plexippus) which occasionally reaches our shores from the Americas (normally autumn time). Moths are a different matter but those species that are poisonous are easily identified by their aposematic (=warning) colouration being red and black; these include the Burnets (Zygaenidae) and the Cinnabar (Tyria jacobaeae) [their larvae are the equally poisonous yellow and black caterpillars that you commonly find on Ragwort during the summer].

There is little ‘substance’ to a butterfly so I doubt they’d make much of a meal for a T. I also wouldn’t go indiscriminately feeding just ANY butterfly you find, as has been said, they’re having a tough-time at the mo’ however, if you do want to do so stick to the ‘whites’ – these will most likely be the Large White (Pieris brassicae) or the Small White (Pieris rapae) which are very common ‘pests’ on brassicas (there are other spp. – Green-veined; Orange-Tip, Wood, etc. – Google for info or buy a book!). I’d have no problem with anyone saying they caught and fed these to their Ts!

Some moths on the otherhand can provide quite a ‘meaty’ meal and I do supplement my Ts’ diet with these. I’ve run a moth trap in my garden nightly for donkeys’ years and have had in excess of 2,000 on some nights! Once again I wouldn’t recommend indiscriminate feeding on ‘conservation’ grounds but there are many species that are ‘super abundant’ at various times of the year e.g. Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba) and the Quakers (Orthosia spp.) and ‘harvesting’ these as T-food does no harm in my opinion. You also get other suitable ‘food’ such as Cockchafer Beetles/May Bugs (Melolontha melolontha) coming to the trap too. As long as I know that what ‘wild food’ I feed my Ts is common and abundant it does not ‘pr*ck [censored word!] my conscience’ to do so. If anyone does want to go down this route as a ‘food supplement’ (a moth trap will cost c. £100) DO invest in suitable identification guides so that you know what you are feeding – not because they may be poisonous (=I can’t think of a poisonous insect in UK that doesn’t have warning colouration so should be obviously avoided) but so that you don’t accidentally go depleting a local population of a rare species (I’ve had some incredibly rare species in my garden!).

I would add that Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) are very ‘delicate’ creatures in that they are highly susceptible to pesticides, etc. so a live specimen is going to be ‘clean’ and OK to feed to your Ts – it would be dead otherwise!

[James Box]

Nick, thanks for clearing that up! lots of good info there