Butterfly aberrations are more common than we may think!
There are many types of aberrations in butterflies. These are a few that we’ve raised at our farm.
Although the adult Monarch from the yellow chrysalises were normal, the chrysalises themselves were fascinating. You can learn more about these yellow Monarch butterfly chrysalises by clicking on this sentence.
Monarch butterflies without veins in the outer edges of their wings were quickly tattered. They had trouble flying until the outside of their wings broke. Once the other edge was gone, they flew without trouble.
Monarch butterflies with an overabundance of white scales, in places where scales should be black, were interesting. These are not the white Monarchs of Hawaii. The Hawaiian White Monarchs have all black bodies. These also had white scales on their bodies.
The white spots on the outer edges of a Monarch butterfly’s wings are normally fairly round. This aberration had elongated white spots.
Several years ago we collected a few Gulf Fritillary eggs from the wild when we were looking for more breeding stock. Two of those eggs hatched and were white Gulf Fritillary caterpillars. The adult version were markedly lighter in color and had white eyes.
Butterfly Fun Facts 