A butterfly with a broken wing means almost certain death. But Janine Bendicksen, of Sweetbriar Nature Center in Smithtown, was determined to see one monarch butterfly survive.
Bendicksen said she’s always wanted to try a transplant on a butterfly, and after 25 years at the nature center, she got the chance.
A monarch butterfly with a wing that was bent and eventually fell off wound up at the center – and Bendicksen took it home and performed a wing transplant.
She used a wing found in the enclosure at Sweetbriar’s butterfly vivarium, as well as contact cement, a small toothpick and corn starch.
She says she had to get creative prior to the procedure.
“When I first tried to do it, the butterfly was way too active, and I said I can’t, like, anesthetize this thing and then I realized if I put him in the refrigerator he would slow down, so that is exactly what I did,” she said.
Bendicksen was able to successfully give the butterfly a new wing – it took around five minutes – and later released it.
Monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico and it should be well on his way.
Bendicksen posted a video of the procedure to social media and it has received millions of views.