Hello butterflies Reddit,

I found this male monarch butterfly outside and I’m worried it’s too late for it to fly south. I left it outside with some cut oranges overnight and it didn’t move from that spot. I live in southern Ontario and it gets down to about 5C every night and there’s already been frost some mornings.

Should I leave it outside still or would there be a way for me to keep it safely inside? If it’s gonna die in the cold anyway I wouldn’t mind it sticking around in my house. I also don’t mind keeping it for a couple days until it warms up if that’ll help. If being indoors will only hurt it and stress it out then I don’t want to do that either.

I know it’s just a bug but I like bugs so whatever course of action is best I’d like to help the lil guy.

So should I keep it or leave it outside? If outside then is there a better time to release it or a better place to put it? If inside is there anything I should prepare? I’ll do my own research as well but I’ve seen people saying it’s generally not a good idea to keep gown butterflies.

Let me know what you think.

Edit: it’s supposed to rain tomorrow and the day after and then drop to zero.

I've been seeing tons of these peculiar little friends around my globemallow and hackberry bushes after the recent monsoons and tropical storm remnants (Phoenix, AZ).

Can a kind Redditor confirm if these are American Snout Butterflies?

I found this creature near my house and I wanna take care of it cuz it's raining a lot here. Tried too google it but I only got results from other countries :(

Found this fella sitting in my tshirt like a week ago. What should I do with it? It getting cold in Poland so I don’t know if i should let it stay inside or release it

loving the intricate colour and pattern☺️😌

I have found all of these butterflies dead. None of them were killed for this.

I also take their bodies and bury them outside under a tree to return them to the earth instead of them rotting on the pavement.

Do you think this is ethical? Or is it morally okay? I don’t want to kill butterflies for my collection, but I do collect dead butterflies when I find them. It’s been a couple months in the making and the Monarch was found in the middle of a parking lot with its abdomen crushed, and similarly with the Painted Lady and Red-Spotted Admiral/Purple.

I got the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail from my friend (from the forest floor and all that was left was this wing).

I would never harm an innocent creature just to display it, but I feel like I’m honoring the beauty of nature and what it has to offer.

Any suggestions? They’re in card sleeves right now because that’s what I had and I printed out the labels because I was excited to learn about them.

From the front garden.

The red admiral caterpillar i took in recently pupated. I didnt think their chrysalis could be so beautiful♥︎ the reflects look like actual gold esp when in the light

Caught it in a temporary container aka a cup until I found a old ice cream tub to make a better place for it, as it was night time I decided to keep it in my room, until I woke up lol, just woke up and released it outside, at first it wouldn't move much, but it was trembeling/vibrating, so I thought it was going to die, but glady seen it fly away just now so I am happy lol

This little feller was struggling outside in the cold rain. Brought them inside have some warm sugar water what else can I do to help

We found this (European Peacock?) butterfly on the landing outside our flat (Glasgow, Scotland). They aren’t moving much at all, just slightly narrowing their wings (although my wife said she spotted it on a different part of the corridor yesterday). I’m not sure if it’s injured, or just emerged, or anything really. We’ve left them some sugar water on a piece of foil - is there anything more we can do to help?

Spotted this Pearl Crescent sunning on the mulch, a first for my yard since I started converting it to pollinator habitat. The skippers have been regulars all season on the asters, yarrow, and everything else in bloom. I'm a wetland ecologist, so plants are my thing and skippers are definitely not. Are these all the same species? I've wondered about Peck's skipper for a few of them. Bonus points to whoever IDs the one on the turtle.

I had misidentified these earlier, so I deleted that post and put the correct name of these beautiful butterflies

What an experience this was, so incredibly cool.

I am wondering if what appears to be tangled antennas will prevent this Buckeye from being able to be released? It had a part of chrysalis stuck to its face, so there must have been an issue with emerging from the chrysalis.

Is it still safe to release or should I just keep and provide sugar water? The wings seem to be okay but on some limited test runs, didn’t seem to want to leave the butterfly apartment.

This is my first attempt to raise a butterfly so any help is appreciated! I was so close to stepping on the caterpillar and am really glad I did not!

Also I usually don’t name stuff like this because it makes me feel attached but since its a Buckeye I was calling it Bucky for one of my favorite NFL RBs, Bucky Irving. Who had the best game of the season the same day my Bucky emerged…so that was cool 🙂

The iridescence of the white spots on this lil guy was insane - JHB, South Africa

Took my dog for a walk so she could go to the bathroom and found this beauty outside my house.

Love the yellow of this guy with the yellow flowers - JHB, South Africa

Came across this Black Swallowtail resting on a bench this morning on a walk with my dog.

Enjoy.

During puddling, butterflies sip from damp soil or small puddles to absorb essential minerals, salts and amino acids.