I volunteer every year at Dow Gardens‘ Butterflies in Bloom exhibit in Midland, Michigan. My weekly job is tending the two emergence cases of chrysalises so the entomologist and biologist can take a break from butterflies and do other work in the gardens. I watch for “crashers,” butterflies that fall to the bottom of the case as they emerge or are drying, and also for butterflies that get stuck as they try to emerge. When they’re stuck, you have to work quickly, because once their wings dry in a position they will remain that way, possibly limiting their ability to fly and feed themselves. It’s stressful and difficult … like separating layers of wet Kleenex. The crashers we try to get to grab onto a chrysalis; failing that, into some other hanging position.

Usually I take some time to shoot photos out in the exhibit, but this was spring break week – very crowded! – so I only have images from behind the case.

I especially like the long tails on the swallowtail at the right.

We use these pads in the emergence cases because we spray them with water to help keep the humidity up. If it’s not high, the butterflies’ wings can dry out before they’re fully unfolded. Crumpled wings = hard to fly properly = unable to fly around the exhibit and get food.

The leopard lacewing on the left is dry and can be released into the exhibit. Its neighbor is still damp … literally, damp. It needs to do some wing flapping.

Here’s a recently emerged butterfly. The body (spotted mass to the right) is fat and the wings aren’t fully unfurled. A big sign that someone has emerged is liquid dripping to the pads. This concerns some visitors because sometimes the stains look like blood, but really it’s meconium … waste.

Here’s the same butterfly a short while later.

Here’s a blue morpho, one of our most popular butterflies. Sorry about the glass reflection.

Here’s that same blue morpho on the opposite side of the case.

A different blue morpho; check the pattern of the blue. The brown spotted wings to the left also are blue morphos, but showing their undersides.

One final friend.