Red Admiral Butterfly emerges and expands wings (time lapse)

[AgentSnowball]

wow! i found this really big one in my backyard

[jcmegabyte]

They can be surprisingly common in places, and once in a while a caterpillar does really well in the environment, which can result in a larger-than-usual adult butterfly. :-) Thanks for stopping by!

[carebearnmbr46]

I love Red Admirals! We get them in our yard in the fall. They're frisky and feisty. : )

[jcmegabyte]

Interesting thing about this and other other species in the Nymphalidae family - males are quite territorial and will even try to chase away birds and large animals that enter their territory! They like to perch in places with a good view of their chosen space, and will even land on people/pets if they are positioned where the butterfly wants to sit! :-)

[linmira]

thank you so very much!!

[linmira]

where do these butterflies live and when do they hatch? (like what time of year?)

[jcmegabyte]

Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta) are found all over the US and Europe, most commonly where their caterpillar host plants (Stinging Nettle, and others) are found. Like most butterflies, they fly in spring and summer, but this varies a lot with season length; they can fly all year in southern latitudes where temps are warm all year. To the north where summers are short, they may only be found for a few weeks each year, in late spring/early summer. =)

[MyWojti]

EXELLENT!!!

[jcmegabyte]

So glad you enjoyed - thanks for watching! =)

[Joshluver1234]

yea you can check out my channel of only ONE video (: im trying to see if i can time my video right to see if i can get another video of my 4 monarch chrysalises...hehe they are like all named (: *Jr. the most recent monarch i released i had found out later was a female (: the vains were deeply smudged identifiying she was a female.

-Morgan <3

[singingismypassion30]

real cool show !! i thought butterflies could only live for two days !!! your lucky you had that type!!

[jcmegabyte]

Some can actually live for nearly 2 months if they're really lucky! Be sure and check out my other life cycle vids - they're much more in-depth than this one. :-) Thanks for watching!

[Smooy1111]

My ones are emerging righ now. You can see it "inflate" its wings.

[jcmegabyte]

Cool - did you get any video? :-)

[AlanEmm08]

i love butterflys i used to catch them when i was a little boy my best one is peacock butterfly

[jcmegabyte]

Me too! I chased them with a shoebox as I didn't have a net. I was 6. :-) I wish we had Peacocks (Nachis io) here. Thanks for watching :-)

[AlanEmm08]

no problem

[Heatseeker872591]

how long do they live once they turn into butterflies?

[jcmegabyte]

Under "ideal" conditions, some butterflies can live well over a month. Those that hibernate (overwinter as adults) can last several months. Thanks for watching! :-)

[sabrina3309]

It's fantastic!

[jcmegabyte]

This was one of my very first bug videos. I'm sure the low quality shows but even so it's still an interesting show! :D

[MrDuffy81]

Do you buy the larva?

or collect the catapillars?

or what?

[jcmegabyte]

I get my live critters several ways - larvae are collected in the field or backyard. I sometimes catch a female and get her to lay eggs on potted host plants back in the lab. A few species I rear completely through the entire life cycle - from mating through subsequent adults. Interesting stuff :D

[dioncat]

WOW!

[lightnings4life]

hey man when did the other cacoons hatch?

[jcmegabyte]

That whole batch of pupae emerged within a 1-week period. My other Red Admiral time lapse videos show many of those others emerging as well. :-)

[plemyk]

dude...whats the camera!!!

[jcmegabyte]

The video was shot with a JVC DC Cybercam (camcorder) model GR-DVM70U. Frames were captured from the tape internally to it's digital still memory card, then copied to the PC to make the time lapse. That's the old, labor intensive way I used to do it. Now I capture frames from the tape directly to the PC via firewire. Much better quality and runs automatically. Whew!

[sarahl18]

that's cool

[youboobsyn]

nice

[zhxiate]

sweet ass

[Nonsequitorz]

cool

[harrisontan]

that is dam cool good job