Delilah’s Diary

Welcome to Delilah’s blog, all about her activities as a house butterfly. Feel free to have a look at our observations and let us know, using the contact form, if you have ever had these experiences before.

An introduction to Delilah

At Bearsprings we know how important it is to be aware of changes within our local environment and how to protect it. An important part of healthy lifestyles and communities is the natural environment around you.

Each year, at Bearsprings we order catterpillars from Insect Lore. These caterpillars transform into painted lady buttterflies.

Delilah was part of a batch of 10 caterpillars. Unfortunately, her cocoon fell from its perch. We know from past experience that these butterflies often do emerge from their cocoons, largely undamaged; although they often have one wing slightly smaller they are still able to fly. It is important not to help them emerge as this will prevent them from releasing a red juice that gets rid of all the caterpillar parts that they don’t need anymore; they need to do this in order to be strong. Don’t worry, it often looks like dried blood but it isn’t.

Delilah did indeed emerge as a beautiful painted lady butterfly. We then attempted to release her several times and while she did try to fly at first, she was far happier to climb back on to our hands to return inside.

Delilah has ripped and damaged wings that are not symetrical in shape. Her wings are also bent over at a 45 degree angle (approximately). While she does indeed appear to be able to fly, she actually cannot fly upwards and instead is able to glide downwards. She has to walk everywhere or be carried. Since bringing Delilah back inside we have made some interesting observations about her behaviour and thought that we would share them here as ‘Delilah’s Diary’. She is much more like a regualr housepet than many would believe!

We invite you to take a look at how Delilah has been adapting to life at Bearsprings after we discovered she could not survive, if released.

Day 1 Delilah’s Diary

Released butterfly sibblings but Delilah couldn’t fly - tried twice and brought her inside.

Day 2 Delilah’s Diary

1. Delilah came out for walks & flapps on the table.

2. Was happily held and drank nectar from hands.

Both of Delilah's wings are bent in the same direction. She is able to open them quite wide, but they never completely straighten out.

Day 3 Delilah’s Diary

1. Delilah is not sociable & does not want to be held at all, though she was okay once scooped up to get her flower sponge out (this is filled with nectar and needs replacing).

2. Flapped around in the evening and allowed adults to stroke her abdomen inside the butterfly house.

3. Played with her antennae and stroked them with her feet like dogs itch their ears.

Day 4 Delilah’s Diary

1. Delilah flapped to SHINee (the only music she has seemed to respond to so far).

2. We discovered Delilah has been moving her old chrysalis casing around.

3. Flapped a bit at lunchtime but didn’t want to come out of the butterfly house again.

4. Wings have remained stronger since Monday when she was practicing her flapping on the table for a while.

5. Tried different songs and types of music again in the evening but she only responded to SHINee again. (Song: ‘Identity’ in particular).

Day 5 Delilah’s Diary

1. Delilah looks much bigger as she can stretch her wings out considerably more now.

2. Was doing backflips at lunchtime.

3. Climbs up the mesh and launches herself off, then flaps as hard as she can (clearly trying to find her own way to fly).

4. Seems a lot stronger today & we found more red liquid on the towel we put on the plate under her house. So, did she release more & her wings got stronger?

5. Wings seem less bent today.

• Plate under the butterfly house is to avoid nectar from sticking to all the surfaces we move her house to. Butterflies are sensitive to temperature changes and in particular to the cold, so she moves around the house during the coldest parts of the day. The towel prevents the plate from over cooling and making the floor of her butterfly house too cold.

Day 6 Delilah’s Diary

1. Has perfected the backflip more & can glide a little, low down in the house. Not sure if she is able to fly at all, because she moves too quickly.

2. Flapped like crazy when adults tried to eat a fried egg sandwhich near her.

• Cannot be ignored because her bent wings make a sort of clapping sound when she flaps quickly. Can she smell the egg without touching it?

Day 7 Delilah’s Diary

1. Somehow appears a little smaller but she is still flapping a lot.

2. Flapped furiously when adults tried to eat a fried egg sandwhich near her again.

   • Butterflies taste with their feet but are we absolutely sure she can’t smell? She only reacts this way to fried eggs.

Day 8 Delilah’s Diary

1. Delilah has moved her favourite dried flower onto her drinking flower sponge and continues to play with her old chrysalis.

Day 9 Delilah’s Diary

1. Delilah seems to have damaged one of her front feet; her leg seems to be considerably shorter than it was a few days ago and now she hobbles a bit.

Day 10 Delilah’s Diary

1. Has a larger rip in her wing - looks like she flapped too hard & it tore some more, but she can still glide down.

2. Seems tired.

Delilah will not release her favourite flower house. So, we went looking for pink/purple coloured flowers.

More Delilah observations :

1. Spent two days quite weak and moving a lot less but woke up much stronger on day 3.

2. Delilah has been moved somewhere warmer (inside a bedroom in the loft) and she is very happy to be there almost all day.

3. Someone came to repair broken blinds in Delilah’s new favourite room but she started throwing her old chrysalis around and flapping defensively (very loudly again). Can Delilah tell the difference between familliar and unfamilliar adults? She appears to be unafected by unfamiliar children.

4. Delilah flapps very loudly and happily in her new room at night; she is clearly nocturnal because she is loud enough to wake up anyone sleeping in there! Usually between 11:30pm - 2:30am.

5. If she appears quiet during the day it’s only because she flapped like a maniac all night.

6. Delilah has a favourite bright pink flower that she burrowed into using her bottom and sat inside it like a dog bed. She was sad when we removed the flower after it had withered so we replaced it with a different purple one, which she also sits on happily but doesn’t drink from. She prefers drinking from white flowers and hates sunflowers. She litterally flipped one over and sat on top of the cut off stem as a perch, the way birds do in a bird house.

7. Delilah has been caught several times moving petals around her house. At first we were not sure if she pulled them off but she bounces rather hard on the flowers and they eventually come off. She then moves them around. If you catch her doing it she will freeze and wait for you to look away before carrying on, even if you are in the same room and quite close to her house.

Delilah has conquered the sunflower. You can also see her favourite dried flower, which she moved herself onto her drinking sponge flower.