Sometimes dead insects can be found in the garden and one option to preserve their beauty is to make them into specimens.
Butterfly is one of the beautiful insects, especially in their adult stage. It is essential to be extra careful when making butterfly specimens because their wings are very fragile and easily broken. The purpose of making butterfly specimens is to showcase the details of their wings, and therefore, the wings must be unfolded perfectly. Of course, some species have more distinctive patterns on their back wings, so if possible, you can have two specimens of the same species, one showing the front wings and the other showing the back.
We found a dead mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) in the garden and decided to preserve it. Mourning cloak is a common nymphalus in Europe and usually lives in forests. Adult mourning cloaks primarily feed on sap, ripe and fallen fruits and sugary exudate from aphids, so you rarely see them in the flowers. In addition, they have the longest lifespan of all butterflies, and can live up to 12 months! So when spring arrives in Finland, we can see adults mourning cloak that emerged from hibernation dancing gracefully in the spring sunshine.