That's the question which I often keen to find out. Until recently I was often been informed that only butterfly caterpillars do produced silk. However, a recent research by Mengyou Lu et al. (July 2024) has finally able to determined that adult butterflies actually do produce silk to attach their pupae to trees. Here's an abstract of their research findings:
"In the present study, we observed two primary methods used by butterflies to hang pupae on trees using silk: pupa adheraena (Danaus chrysippus) and pupa contigua (Papilio polytes). Anchoring the abdominal ends of pupae with a silk pad was the most common method used in both cases, whereas wrapping silk around the body using a silk girdle was a method unique to pupa contigua. The connection between the cremaster and silk pad was observed to be similar to that between the hook and loop of a Velcro fastener, except that the cremaster hook is anchor-shaped rather than being a single hook. Such a connection will remain secure, ensuring the safety of the pupae during exposure to wind and rain. Through determining the mechanical properties of silk, the performance of butterfly silk was found to be weaker than that of silkworm silk".
Recently I was able to see and photographed this phenomenon in Thailand. This adult skipper (looks like some Koruthaialos species) was seen spraying a thin layer of silk from underneath its thorax. It would continue to spew the silk for a few seconds then it would stopped. It will then continue the sequence again until it finally stopped totally in less than a minute. Presumably it might have run out of silk.
So happy that I have finally able to document this phenomenon and support the theory that an adult butterfly actually does produce silk. Seeing is believing but photographing it is amazing.
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