We love animals here at HNN even the animals that are insects (yes I know insects aren’t animals). So, when we saw this cute story from Bored Panda we had to share it with you!
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Romy McCloskey, who kind of fell into raising butterflies, recently found one of her monarch’s with a broken wing. Given that monarch’s only live from 2 weeks to 5 months and that they hold a special place in her heart, she knew she needed to help or the little guy wouldn’t see much of his already short life.
“I have always had a love for butterflies. They have a very personal meaning to me. Before my mother died, almost 20 years ago, she said to me, ‘Romy, whenever you see a butterfly, know that I’m there with you, and that I love you.’”1
Turning her home into an operating room she used some common household items (a towel, a wire hanger, contact cement, a toothpick, a cotton swab, scissors, tweezers, talc powder, and an extra butterfly wing from one of her butterflies who had died a few days before) and performed a wing transplant. A slightly easier task for a professional costume designer and master hand embroiderer!
Thankfully, according to McCloskey, butterflies wings do not have pain receptors. She also made sure to explain that, “…the butterfly sustained his injury during pupating into his chrysalis. It was not a genetic defect or deformity due to the Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) parasite that fatally infect Monarchs. I did have a lot of people asking why I would ever introduce inferior or defective genes into the butterfly gene pool. I had to explain to many that I did not. In fact, any caterpillars or butterflies that are infected with OE or Tachinid fly (T-fly) larva must be euthanized to stop any further contamination in the Monarch population.”2
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Scroll down to see pictures of the surgery!
McCloskey found that after surgery and some rest, her little Monarch was able to fly off!
