the miracle of the butterfly cremaster

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Butterfly Cremasters

Many species of buttery caterpillars must grab with a cremaster when they are pupating or they will fall and die. The cremaster grabs onto the silk pad they make with silk glands. The spinneret, to lay the silk, is on on thier 'lower lip' or labium. The photographs below are of the hooks at the end of the pupa, or chrysalis. These hooks must grab into the silk if the caterpillar is a species which hangs as a chrysalis. The Atala butterfly is an odd one; although it uses a silk girdle, it does not use a cremaster.

Click on any photo to view the enlarged photo.


Eastern Black Swallowtail Papilio polyxenes chrysalis with cremaster hooks.	Eastern Black Swallowtail Papilio polyxenes cremaster hooks.

Eastern Black Swallowtail Papilio polyxenes cremaster hooks.	Eastern Black Swallowtail Papilio polyxenes pupa (chrysalis) may vary in color.

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All photographs on this site are copyright protected.
For permission to use any photo, please contact Edith Smith at Shady Oak Butterfly Farm.

Email edith@buyabutterfly.com
Shady Oak Butterfly Farm Toll free 877-485-2458 12876 SW CR 231 Brooker, Fl 32622 Stephen & Edith Smith

Located 45 minutes from the Butterfly Rainforest Exhibit at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida

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At Shady Oak Butterfly Farm we have raised over 50 species of butterflies and moths, topping over 5,000 pupae some weeks.