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do butterflies bleed?

Ok, I took the WV Lepidoptera training course to help with the Butterfly Atlas.. anyway.. so I was taught how to capture them
and I don't kill things ( I don't even eat things that had a face or came from something that did ) and I caught a red spotted purple today
in my bf net. I put him in my photo jar, and began to take photos, I noticed tiny drops of red, sure looked like blood to me!
I had never had this happen before and this is probably the 6th one I have captured for photos.. anyway.. it was so sad, the butterfly
was fine, didn't notice any injuries... and it sat on my finger for about two minutes before it took off in flight..

man I hope I didn't hurt it.. ugh, can't imagine what happened

See here

 
And this poor pupa

It was dead the next day. The color may not be as red as this but it was reddish.

 
thanks
how interesting..

Possibly 'meconium'...
It may be a newly emerged butterfly that was able to fly, and is possibly still getting rid of it's meconium, which are the waste materials built up over it's time spent in the chrysalis. It's often a reddish hue, though for what reason I'm not sure.

 
whew
yes it was very reddish... well it looked like blood to me, when I wiped the box with a paper towel it was blood red.. but interesting, well maybe and hopefully that was it! it was a perfect butterfly, and had the fringe on the edges of the wings.. so I think that means it's a newer butterfly right?

 
Insect "blood" is not red
because the red blood cells that you and I have are red due to the iron rich haemoglobin, which is used to bind oxygen and transport it to our cells. Insects have spiracles on the outside of the body that open to draw in oxygen and disperse it around the body through tracheae and tracheoles. So in short, insects are not using Iron in a closed circulatory system to move oxygen around like us. They use a system of various sized "tubes" to run oxygen around to their cells. The insect blood, or better called "hemolymph" is used as a transport system for other things, such as proteins, water, and waste materials, just not oxygen, and it is not enclosed in any type of tube system. hence the term "open" insect circulation system..

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