University of Otago insect researcher Dr Jenny Jandt has given interviews nationally and overseas on a peculiar practice — taking the wing from a dead monarch butterfly to replace that of an injured one. Dr Jandt said yesterday the phenomenon was fairly new to her but thought in some respects it was encouraging.
"It’s very cool to see people loving insects and recognising them as animals that are struggling to survive as well.
"I just hope that if they are going to that extent they will also help [create the environment butterflies need].’’
Monarch butterflies usually only live from two to six weeks. Dr Jandt said she worked mainly with bees, wasps and ants, but her father was a keen lepidopterist and from childhood she had also collected butterflies.
New Zealand insect enthusiasts have been known to cut injured butterfly wings off and painstakingly replace them, taking care not to damage the scales on the wing.
As the wings had no nerves the operation was painless for the butterfly, and Dr Jandt said if very fast-acting superglue was used, toxins would dry quickly.
Monarch Butterfly NZ spokeswoman Jacqui Knight said female monarch butterflies could produce up to 1000 eggs, and creatures with damaged wings should be left to fend for themselves, as they might have genetic deformities.
However, Dr Jandt said the proportion of butterflies being helped by the transplants was too small to make an impact on the population.
Also it was likely butterflies with replacement wings would have difficulty finding a mate anyway, especially if the wings of female butterflies were replaced with male ones.
The procedure was "neutral’’ and planting swan plants would be more productive, but she thought it would be fascinating to track the progress of a butterfly which had had a wing transplant.
She had never seen a monarch butterfly while living in Dunedin, but she had seenmany smaller butterflies and she grew the plants to encourage them, ensuring there were no pesticides in her garden.