I haven't even read the article yet, but have been talking to my husband about transfer of "consciousness" from caterpillar to butterfly because sometimes I also think the reared butterflies "recognize" me.

Can't wait to read it and see if it's saying the same thing!

That's so incredible! I was wondering if there could be a conditioned behavior transferred to the butterfly stage just because of how relaxed the butterflies are about being handled upon release. With the Harris' Checkerspots, they even went on my finger after being released.

So cool! Thanks for the article? How did you find it?

A gal, who had come across one of my websites, sent it to me. She had some questions and I emailed her back. She then asked me if I'd read the article and I replied, "No, but I do believe that hand-reared butterflies do 'know' you!" So, see? Science seems to verify it. tee-hee!

Some people have asked if I use some special perfume or if the butterflies just sense that I am friendly to them. One of my former students who calls me 'mom' says that I am enchanted. Whatever it is, I'll take it!

Oh, as I sit out here in the backyard, there's this female Monarch flying about. She keeps coming right up to me. Hmmm...makes me wonder if I know her from somewhere...or maybe Tifanny aka tdog is sending me a 'hello' message?

I have had for several years a group of paper wasps who have lived here. I have noticed that when I visit them in the shed they live in in the winter or they fly around me that talking to them seems to make them nonagressive toward me. I think also they recognize my personal oders. When I read this NG article I immediately thought of them.

Unlike yellow jackets these are good guys.

Penny

Sorry folks. Too many years in science while being too logical and analytical for my own good maybe. I have to take the other side on this one.

The behavior Sherry relates to when she comes home from work is more logically just individuals being territorial, attracted to the movement, a color, a scent, or even just out of plain curiosity. That same behavior is very common out in the nature with leps being encountered for the first time anywhere in the world in any habitat. There is also no proof all (or even any) of those who "come" to Sherry are the same individuals she raised. Even if some of them are her babies, itÂs a good bet itÂs a spattering of both home reared and wild adults in the area for the first time reacting with the same behaviors.

The article sounds like some folks trying to give lots of credit to a bugÂs brain capacity from a simple test that is far from conclusive and in fact so thin it really proves nothing at this point.

It's accepted that leps do retain some pertinent data via chemical signatures that they'll need to complete their life history (mostly passed on to them buy their mother). But to the point of remembering an individual person that reared them as a larva when they are an adult? Or that passed on a personÂs chemical signature from one generation to the next? That's a bunch of caterstench IMO!

Maybe your perfume is Love Potion No. 9 to the leps Sherry. LOL

tee-hee! Hey, who knows? I just wonder though, Larry, if in fact, insects do have some sort of olfactory 'memory' like say, mammals do. I know that some reptiles do and it makes me wonder, when I've raised as many butterflies as I have, and have encountered this weird phenomenon, whether or not there is something to the so-called science. As you say, it does seem a bit odd but odder things have been known to be true!

For years, it was a 'fact' that butterflies did not pollinate Plumeria (frangipani). I started raising butterflies and my hubby raises Plumeria. Lo and behold, he began having seed pod after seed pod on his Plumeria plants. I told him I'd seen butterflies trying to get nectar from the blossoms despite the deepness of the blossoms. In fact, I took pictures of the attempt by the butterflies. Sure enough, now, there are books and articles on how butterflies are just one of the pollinators for Plumeria! (and I'd been saying this for years...and had been told, "Not true!")

I guess that perhaps I have that certain lepidoptera pheromone (Love Potion #9?) to the ol' butterflies. Who knows? Just the butterflies...

Nothing wrong with wondering at all... that's what fuels science and gives it a purpose. But until a theory like this is proven to be fact without reservations by the scientific community as a whole it remains only speculation.

I've already listed some logical possible reasons why this would not be a "weird phenomenon" at all, but rather just some easily explainable natural acts. TheyÂre certainly easier to believe than the theory.

The moth/Plumeria pollination thing was a much more tangible possibility than a butterfly with more rudimentary intelligence than Al Bundy. LOL

Besides, if it really was true don't you think with the thousands to 10's of thousands of leps I raised every year for many years I would have had to beat off those that I had released on my property with a stick when I came home from work every night? Guess they didn't like my cologne. :)

That's interesting, Sherry!
I liked the explanation about what the Mama moth/butterfly chooses to lay her eggs on - they say it has a lot to do with what she ate as a caterpillar. The giant swallowtails have perplexed me with the way they sometimes go for the rue, sometimes the orange tree, and sometimes the Ptelea trifoliata, but that could be the explanation.
Sherry

Oh Larry...it may just be that male Neanderthal thing you've got going on, like I always like to tease DH (who likes to say that 'DH' stands for 'dumb husband' not 'dear husband'). I'm just teasing! I do wonder...and like you said, wondering is one of the reasons that gets scientists to do all of that hypothesizing, right? Hey, I didn't go into teaching for nuthin', ya know. tee-hee!

Ahhh...just wait. I'll be teaching those ol' middle schoolers beginning late August and you just KNOW what they'll say with regards to the ol' pheromones...I'll be surrounded by pheromones! And, not necessarily the GOOD kind. hehehehehe...ahhh, the good ol' days...I'll be a-missing those Kindergartners and their peeing in their pants, I'm sure. Instead, I'll be dealing with hormonal teenagers. Oh well, giving up one chemical for another, just like dealing with these leps, right?