"Unwilling to give up on the butterfly, Hoffdavis carefully brought it to the nonprofit wildlife rehabilitation center to see if there was anything to be done to help. Janine Bendicksen, the center's director of wildlife rehabilitation, had the bold idea of a wing transplant. The unusual procedure could give the tiny victim a fighting chance to be air-bound once again, she correctly believed. But first, it needed a viable donor."
"Once she found the perfect match, she delved into the five-minute-long surgery, which required both patience and precision. 'It was so intricate, because this butterfly could fall apart if I pressed too hard,' the rescuer told CBS. She explained that the center used contact cement, corn starch and a small piece of wire, which held the butterfly, to pull off the feat."
"Video shared by Sweetbriar Nature Center shows the insect being held down by the wire as Bendicksen used scissors to cut off the jagged ends of what remained of the broken wing. She then lined the new wing up with what the butterfly had left and carefully glued it onto the insect. Bendicksen assured that it did not feel a thing, as there are no nerve receptors or blood flow at the end portion of butterfly wings."
Rescuers at Sweetbriar Nature Center in Smithtown, Long Island, received a monarch butterfly with a bent, torn wing that prevented flight. Dagmar Hoffdavis found the struggling insect and delivered it to the nonprofit rehabilitation center. Janine Bendicksen, director of wildlife rehabilitation, performed a five-minute wing transplant after locating a suitable dead monarch donor on the floor. The procedure required patience and precision and used contact cement, corn starch, scissors, and a small wire to stabilize the insect. Bendicksen trimmed jagged wing edges, aligned and glued the donor wing in place. The butterfly flapped its wings shortly afterward; the wing tip contains no nerve receptors or blood flow.
Read at Mail Online
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