Butterfly Yurts

Mary Jo and Vincent check out Larvaland

I'm just back from spending a day at the Oregon Zoo. What an incredibly productive day this has been. It's been scales falling from the eyes, new insights, changing the way we'll be doing a lot of things type productive.

The purpose of our visit was to meet with Mary Jo, a keeper at the Oregon Zoo. She has been running the endangered butterfly recovery program at the zoo. We wanted to see what they are doing, especially how they are keeping caterpillars alive over the winter. One of the species that they work with is the endangered Oregon Silverspot, which is a close relative of a species we work with, the Regal Fritillary.

Taylor's Checkerspot Larvae in a yogurt container

The larvae will spend the winter outdoors under these flower pots

Our first stop was larva land. This is where Mary Jo winters caterpillars of the Taylors Checkerspot, another endangered species. The larvae are in crumpled paper towels inside of yogurt containers. The yogurt containers are placed on the catch tray from a large terrra cotta flowerpot. A square of gauze is stuck in the flower pot's drainhole, and the flowerpot is used to cover the whole thing. I knew immediately that this method holds great promise for keeping our swamp metalmarks over the winter.

Oregon Silverspot eggs with newly hatched larvae that have crawled onto the yurt.
The white filter paper helps keep everything moist but not wet.


Silverspot larvae in a yurt

Mary Jo's lab is a very impressive operation. They process large numbers of larvae, and keep meticulous records. They are able to store the Silverspot larvae over the winter in the refrigerator by using yurts. Yurts are small pieces of corregated cardboard that are sterilized and placed in pertri dishes with Silverspot eggs. When the eggs hatch, the larvae eat their eggshells, then wander over to the yurts. They sit in the grooves of the carboard. The bits of cardboars are refrigerated over the winter in special cages. In the spring, they are warmed up and the larvae are offered food. They complete their development and are released into the field. We can do this.

Mary Jo (l) with another keeper and a kinkajou

Porcupine, eating


Me with a Humboldt Penguin

We haven't even visited Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle yet, but already we know that we will be returning home with all kinds of new ideas and techniques. It wasn't all serious technical discussions, either. I got to feed a porcupine, meet a kinkajou, and pet a Humboldt penguin. Today gets a 10.

4,000 Eggs of the endangered Oregon Silverspot