Removal of the abdomens of blue Morpho butterflies

[fvscarvalho]

The lack of abdomens on blue Morpho specimens offered for sale always puzzled me. Is the removal of the abdomens done to prevent the greasing of the wings? If so, the abdomen should be preserved separately and sold with the specimen, otherwise the specimen has no scientific value, because there is no genitalia to confirm the ID. I have seen hundreds of blue Morpho butterflies in the collections of the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, France, and all had the abdomens! If the abdomen is sold with the specimen, the collector can soak it in acetone for a week or two, to remove any grease it may contain, and then glue it to the thorax of the specimen.

[Paul K]

You are very right . Abdomen should be included.
I have purchased also some Morphos and no abdomens attached or included with specimen.
I have caught some specimen my self in central and South America and never removed abdomen from them , never had a problem with greased abdomens.

Paul

[trehopr1]

Interesting topic. I too have pondered this topic and I do agree that abdomens should be included with each specimen. However, the reality of the situation I believe is simply that we are talking about modern butterfly farming practices on a mass production scale. Rather than take the risk of perhaps a small percentage of specimens greasing due to stored fats in their abdomens; these farming operations simply remove all the abdomens of each crop they harvest as a matter of long standing established procedure. In doing so they in a sense guarantee that their product has a no fail / 100% return rate. Pure profit, no complaints, no returns, and most of all no disgruntled customers ! !
These sorted operations remember also reach out to the butterfly wing art people. All over South and Central America butterfly wing art in all its myriad art forms is still widely sold virtually everywhere. And Morpho's entire wings or pieces of --- are an integral part involved in most every piece produced.
When I was a teenager in the early 70's and I started purchasing a few token Morpho's to enhance my small "exotics" portion of my collection I always received reminder notes from dealers that the "abdomens are removed from Morpho's to prevent greasing". I never questioned the thought as all that mattered was that I had a beautiful flawless blue butterfly to behold un-like any other. I figured the dealers knew better than I did about such things as they would'nt want to go about replacing greased up examples.
Anyway, during the summer of my junior year in high school (1977) I became a volunteer worker at Field Museum near my home. That summer I literally fumigated with naphthalene about half of the museums insect collection drawers. My absolute favorite section to re-fumigate was the Lepidoptera holdings (which I started out with). And within those Lepidoptera holdings I had the sole honor of going through every single drawer of Herman Strecker's personal collection !
As I went drawer by drawer on through his collection I finally arrived at his Morpho portion. I remember it amounted to something around 20 drawers all told. And what I found MOST curious about his Morpho's was that ALL of them had their abdomens ! ! The blue ones, the white ones, the brown ones, the pearly species, and even the super metallics (rhetenor and cypris). What ? ? How is that possible ? And more importantly (I thought to myself) why would such a tale of greasy winged Morpho's be perpetuated ? Here I was standing before a nearly 100 year old collection and the Morpho's looked to be every bit as good as the day they were collected. And none had stained wings.
I tossed around the idea that perhaps Strecker somehow either received many of his Morpho's still pretty fresh (within just days of capture) or that he had received his specimens already spread and dried after capture. However, the main problem with this line of thought was what mail service would have been like between the 1870's through 1900. I'm fairly certain it must have taken weeks to get anything. And imagine having spread / dried specimens being sent to you. Surely, there would be some missing antennae or damage from "spinners". And yet, so help me I could'nt find anything of the sort present in his collection.
My conclusion was that he most likely received most of his Morpho's in envelopes and that he just spread them (like any other lepidopteran) and took his chances. Some trades made with fellow collectors or important dealers might also have enabled him with some specimens.
I do know that a few of the more common species like peleides and menalaus are sold in chrysalid form to butterfly houses. How difficult it would be for individuals to get Morpho chrysalids of various species ---I do not know as I am very much unfamiliar with how well regulated or un-regulated the livestock trade is.

[fvscarvalho]

Quite interesting your post! So it is a stupid habit to remove the abdomens. I restrain myself to buy those abdomen-less Morpho specimens and, like myself, many people probably do the same and so, Morpho traders are loosing costumers. Now the question is, how to stop this stupidity? Let's hope that some Morpho traders read these posts.

[wollastoni]

True that when I look at Morpho for sale on Collector's Secret, half of them are abdomen-free...

You should contact ebay sellers one by one and explain them collectors are ready to pay more for specimens with abdomen.

They should at least send them in the parcel for collectors to be able to glue them.

[trehopr1]

fvscarvalho, I must admit that for a great many years I restrained myself from purchasing Morpho's because of the abdomen-less issue. I've always been pretty fickle about having the best examples I could purchase --- no lesser choices accepted. Over the years, I was able to obtain around a half dozen species (with abdomens) from old collections I had an opportunity to purchase from. Then finally, once about 5 years ago a dealer friend of mine gave me a call and told me of a small collection of Morpho's (18 drawers) which he had just purchased. He said would you still like to just look it over before I put em' in "Riker's" and sell them off ??
Well, within 2 days I was at his home looking over the pinned collection. I was very pleasingly surprised to say the least ! All the material was expertly spread (very nicely) and with full data. Better than anything I had seen in quite a while.... In fact, I was so impressed I did'nt even notice the missing abdomens on most !
So, it was "do or die" time for me. It was a matter of take the plunge and have no regrets about it OR see all those beautifully prepared gorgeous creatures get pushed off their pins into Riker's and FOREVER regret the missed opportunity ! !
Needless to say, wise reasoning prevailed and I dove in and started "cherry-picking" with wallet in one hand and a steady hand with the other. I picked off 18 specimens that day totaling 900 bucks. I found at least another 10 items I would have additionally liked to have owned but, my money ran out. Still, you could not have wiped the smile off my face that day and I thanked my lucky stars for the chance I was given. The sheer beauty of those butterflies that day overwhelmed me and the ones I was able to get still do....
So, for what it's worth try not to look any too hard at their missing abdomens. Their stunning beauty and myriad forms will surely brighten even the cloudiest dreary day. And keep in mind that many are very affordable as compared to similar "stunners" which may garner as much as three to five times the price rate.