Proboscis...

Butterflies get to eat too, and they have a built-in straw that they can use to sip nectar from flowers. It's not easy to get good photos of this part of butterfly anatomy--they usually keep it coiled up under the chin.

But when the butterfly has just emerged from the crysalis, it will usually play around with its proboscis, loosening and tightening the coil, and occasionally extending it...gotta be sure it works OK before heading out.

You can tell by this one's uninflated wings that she's just recently emerged.

Loosening it up a little...

A little later, and the wings are now mostly inflated, and still putzing with the proboscis.

Different butterfly...coiled proboscis.

Uncoiled proboscis.

Knuckle-shot.



Home


Home
The condo, nursery, bassinet, and pupa pad...
Tools...
Time for chow...
Beware store-bought food!
The preferred foods...
Convergence...
Newborn...
Reasoning with a youngster...
Pumpkerpillars...
Twins...
A tiny wasp larva intervenes...
Don't toss out that drowned cat!
Silk...
Frass...
Something there is in a fennel plant that loves a caterpillar egg...
Cats can be a handful... Applying low voltage...
Time to roam...
Contortion...
It's pupating where??
What is that weird thing?!
No harness? Stop worrying...
Emergence...
The butterfly...
Girl or Boy?
The fabulous flying machine...
Full Span...
The antennae...
The proboscis...