What happened to this butterfly? How do i care for it?
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Something went wrong after it emerged from pupa. It was supposed to extend the wings by pumping internal fluids into them, but for some reason that didn’t fully work. It could be that it couldn’t climb somewhere so the wings could hang, the external conditions were too hot or cold or there was just something wrong internally.
If the fluids inside the wings have dried, there is nothing that can be done. It is what it is. If it can’t fly, you could put it on flower so it might eat, until something eats it.
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Hello and welcome to the community !
I’m not an expert, so please take this with a grain or two of salt. But I think this butterfly’s wings are either crippled (by a predator or something) or still drying after emerging from it’s pupa. If it is still drying, then it should soon be able to fly away. Just leave it on a branch or some place for it’s wings to dry out. But if it’s crippled, there is not much you can do. It can’t fly away, so it would probably die in the wild. You could feed it with sugar-water (aka homemade nectar) but it wouldn’t live long.
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Yes - it is possible that the process of filling the wings has not finished yet. In that case it should be OK soon. In that case the wings would be quite soft now.
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It looks like undried wings after hatching to me… I think you should wait and see what happens next, see if they ‘dry’.
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Thank you so much, unfortunately the wings stayed the same😔
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Thank you so much, i placed it on rosemary and lavender flowers… the wings stayed the same… butterfly lived for about 5 days with me then she died😔
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Thank you so much, you were right
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