A zoo volunteer was able to save the life of a fragile butterfly by performing a wing transplant and intricately attaching a piece from a dead lookalike.

Katie VanBlaricum, 36, spotted a Monarch butterfly with a piece of its wing missing while working at her local zoo in Kansas.

She immediately decided to repair the damaged insect after fearing it would need to be put down.

Armed with tape, glue and pins, Ms VanBlaricum got to work and managed to hold down the butterfly long enough to glue on a piece of wing taken from a dead butterfly.

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A zoo volunteer was able to save the life of a fragile butterfly by performing a wing transplant and intricately attaching a piece from a dead lookalike

Just a matter of days later, the insect was up and flying again and Ms VanBlaricum bid farewell to her new friend.

She explained: 'I was helping the zoo tag the butterflies when a lady came up to me and said that one of them had a broken wing and said she would have to put in the freezer.

'I had already repaired a wing in the past so she asked me to help this one so I took it home with me.'

Ms VanBlaricum, from Kansas, usually works with dead butterflies for her business Insect Art in which she creates jewellery and frames using dead insects.

She immediately decided to repair the damaged wing after fearing the insect would be put down

She added: 'I have a lot of dead butterflies in my house so I had lots of options to choose from. I managed to find one that was the same size and shape that could work.

Katie VanBlaricum, 36, spotted a Monarch butterfly with a piece of its wing missing while working at her local zoo in Kansas

The volunteer managed to attach the wing with glue - after it was damaged by school children trying to get it out of a net.

'Butterflies can be slowed down a little bit if you put them in the refrigerator but not for very long so I put glass plates over the top of it to keep in place,' she said.

'I cut off the broken bit of wing and glued on the other wing which came from a Graphium butterfly. Then I held it for a few seconds.'

A butterfly has four wings, two fore-wings and two hind-wings which are attached to segments which use its strong muscles to move the wings up and down.

After the swift but successful procedure to repair the butterfly's left forewing, Ms VanBlaricum let it go and watched in awe as it flew up into the trees.

She said: 'It was quite stormy for a few days so I ended up keeping it over the weekend for two or three days and fed it so it would be ready to fly again.

'When we finally went out it just flew up into the tree and used the wind to help it fly.'

Armed with tape, glue and pins, Ms VanBlaricum got to work and managed to hold down the butterfly long enough to glue on a piece of wing taken from a dead butterfly

Just a matter of days later, the insect was up and flying again and Ms VanBlaricum bid farewell to her new friend

The idea first came to her after she visited a butterfly conservation where her friend worked and saw a butterfly with a wing that didn't match the other.

Ms VanBlaricum began frantically researching and in 2013 carried out her first butterfly wing transplant.

She added: 'I knew it could be done, but I didn't know the best way to do it.'

Despite the two parallels of her recent wing transplant and Insect Art business, Katie claims the two don't link up.

Ms VanBlaricum added: 'A lot of people mention that I've helped this butterfly when I've got thousands of dead insects in my basement but the two don't really link up.

'The insects I use come from insect farms where they are specifically bred for this process they are not taken from the wild and we're not hurting the wild population.'

The volunteer managed to attach the wing with glue - after it was damaged by school children trying to get it out of a net