Making a butterfly decoy

[Chuck]

For 2024, my plan is employ decoys to lure in adult Tiger Swallowtails.

I can't find anything via search. So these are my plans: feel free to add/ critique.

I plan to emulate several butterflies puddling. To do so, I will use dead but real specimens. Some will have wings spread flat, some over the body, perhaps one half way to emulate flight. Since Tigers puddle, but also attack / investigate others of the species, I want to use it both in the forest for "puddling" and (but more so) in the field to attract males.

These I will attach (glue) to a small board, perhaps 6"x6" (15cm x 15cm). The board I'll just paint brown or green/brown.

On the bottom I'll have some sort of "cup" / connector so it can be set on a pipe, or placed on the ground.

To keep it from getting busted while in use: I suppose I could reinforce the bottoms of wings with cardboard of sheet plastic. I wish I could spray the wings with clear polyurethane, but I fear that it would inhibit the UV spectrum; I have no better solution than to leave them uncoated.

Transport to some study areas is a bear, I'll be lugging this contraption, so I'll probably have to make the thing a box-type cover. I'm trying to think of something like a large tupperware, for which the tupperware top (upside down) would become my base; the tupperware bottom becomes the removable cover. But the flexing I'm concerned about.

Appreciate any valuable insights, experiences, suggestions.

Thanks!

[kevinkk]

Good luck, sounds interesting. Try hairspray for the wings perhaps. I have made clocks using spiderwebs that I have sprayed with hairspray, there's
more to it than just that, but it may be a substitute for the clear polyurethane.

[adamcotton]

Putting dead specimens on baited ground should work well there. I often used this for Asian species.

As for a decoy, I definitely think it would not be a good idea to cover, spray or paint the wings as that is likely to affect the attraction negatively.

Perhaps a grooved piece of wood (plywood sheet?) for the background would work. The body could go into the groove so that the wings are flat on the wood. The wings could be glued on the underside without affecting the upperside and any attractiveness.

Adam.

[livingplanet3]

The following probably isn't applicable to the described plan, but it's an interesting video on catching Morpho hecuba with a lure -

[58chevy]

There is a metallic blue mylar balloon stuck in a tree near my house. It looks a lot like a morpho. Maybe it would be a good lure.

[58chevy]

This might help lure tigers:

[evra]

Keep in mind that they see in a different wavelength, so just because it looks like it would be a good mimic to our eyes, it isn't necessarily good to them. It would be interesting to know what the world looks like through their eyes.

Based on some of my field work/experiences, I suspect that some of the patterns on the wings (like the discal spots on adult Hemileucas) must reflect some UV wavelengths so that it stands out to the adults, because the adults seem to be attracted to these spots on other adults at close range. I think that once the male's electroreceptors on his antennae get so overwhelmed by pheromone as he approaches the female, he uses sight to find her in the dense brush once he gets only a few meters away.

[Chuck]

This might help lure tigers:

Thanks, though I became dubious early in the video. It's worth a great laugh at 0:38 seeing the mature Papilio larva they stuck in a barren bush. Poor thing is just curled up there, not knowing what to do.

I've been unable to ID what it is specifically that puddling Tigers are after. This has been discussed before, with Paul and others suggesting mixtures. However, I've tried various combinations of urine, gatoraide, salt, etc with zero effect. In the wild, while I've seen puddling on the shore and along creeks, a vast majority are on wet dirt roads, suggesting that something leaking from autos is the draw. That said, it seems regional too- I did get glaucus to come to day old urine in KY- but it's never worked in NY.

In any event, having had no success enticing puddling, my though is to fake puddling; if I can get them to come investigate then maybe I can catch some of the rarely captured Spring fliers.

[Chuck]

There is a metallic blue mylar balloon stuck in a tree near my house. It looks a lot like a morpho. Maybe it would be a good lure.

Not for Tigers. Nor for ulysses. So at least in the case of P ulysses, it's more than human-spectrum color, there must be a UV component.

[Cassidinae]

The following probably isn't applicable to the described plan, but it's an interesting video on catching Morpho hecuba with a lure -

Nice video. Saint Elie, right?

[livingplanet3]

The following probably isn't applicable to the described plan, but it's an interesting video on catching Morpho hecuba with a lure -

Nice video. Saint Elie, right?

Quite possibly, as many of the channel's videos were taken in French Guiana -

https://www.youtube.com/@troywells2756/videos