Heliconius melpomene butterfly emerging from chrysalis

Time lapse Heliconius melpomene butterfly emerging from chrysalis.
Filmed by Neil Bromhall
copyright www.complete-gardens.co.uk
I wasn't sure how long the butterfly would take to emerge so I started the sequence using a studio flash. The flash took too long to recharge so I used a tungsten light in order to get 2 second intervals.
Nikon D300, 35mm lens with studio flash and Headler tungten lamp.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Butterfly
• time
• lapse
• emergence
• Heliconius
• melpomene
• chrysalis
• Neil
• Bromhall

[MerleundMerlin]

Nice video. But I think the species is wrongly classified. Heliconius melpomene is very variable, but allways has two red dots on the base of the back wing underside.

This is most probably Heliconius antiochus.

Breeding tropical butterflies can really be a very expensive hobby. My tropical greenhouse is kept at 28 degrees C and 90% humidity 12 month a year. In this quasi-natural surrounding butterflies will emerge when the sun comes out. At 9 to 11 o'clock a.m. It takes about 45 minutes.

[neilbromhall]

@MerleundMerlin Thank you for your kind comment and suggestions. You are more of an expert to me so you are probably right regarding the classification . I picked up the pupa from the Stratford Butterfly farm in the UK. They get their specimens from various parts of the World and might not be 100% sure which species they have been sent. It could also explain why mine emerged very early in the morning rather than between 9 -11 o'clock in the morning. Best wishes

Neil

[rbrooks2006]

Awesome stuff! The changeover could almost give rise to a simulated sunset if the lighting could have slowly been changed over the duration. It would also need at least the sunlight slowly moving on a tracking arm. Looking forward to more video clips.

[neilbromhall]

Nice idea of the light changing. Heliconius tent to emerge at about 3 o' clock in the morning, so a few early starts. My latest chrysalis took a week to emerge then fell off, so I didn't get the emergence I wanted. Keeping the studio at 28 degrees C and with 90% humidity so these sequences are turning out to be an expensive project.

[APurseyful]

Butterfly emergence is clearly a tricky thing to film, as it appears to happen so fast. You are a very dedicated soul!

[rbrooks2006]

As one photographer, John Davison (Oxford photographer and producer of the poster of the shark in the roof of that house) so succinctly put it - "Why?" Of course meaning that there has to be a reason or a market to make the ideas pay so you are rightly hinting at the same thing.