Disappearing Butterflies: Backyard Gardeners Can Save the Day
Butterflies have mesmerized humans for millennia. Images of butterflies have appeared in 3000-year-old hieroglyphs, in ancient Mayan art and among the artifacts of many ancient Native American cultures.
Such a shame that butterflies are appearing less and less frequently in our gardens, right? They bring a sense of rebirth and wonder. But what do they contribute to the earth besides the pure poetry that is a butterfly?
Butterflies are important pollinators for many flowering plants and as food for many other species. Butterfly watching provides the foundation of some economies in developing countries, such as the Monarchs’ overwintering grounds in several small Mexican towns.
An Astounding Transformation
The lifecycle of butterflies from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis (cocoons are for moths!) to winged wonders has baffled and fascinated scientists for centuries. The transformational magic begins in the chrysalis, where the caterpillar literally melts.
But some of the old caterpillar tissues, called imaginal disks, are absorbed into the becoming-butterfly’s body. Fun Fact Alert: The rest of the tissues liquify (the caterpillars head falls off!) to provide nutrients to it’s new form. This entire complete transformation takes only about two weeks.
Butterflies are in Trouble
“…. evidence is mounting that many butterflies are now declining in unprecedented numbers.” – Gardening for Butterflies, The Xerces Society, Portland, OR, 2016. See Books & People for more about this book.
There are more than 20,000 species of butterflies that have been identified globally. And who knows how many more there could be… if only we can meet them before they go extinct. Habitat loss, climate change, pesticides, and destructive gardening and farming practices are all contributing the decline in butterfly populations.
See “Organic Gardening Tips” for a quick how-to on “Grow Your Own “Pesticides”
Of all the amazing feats these tiny creatures are capable of, Monarchs may be the most remarkable. Amazing Fact Alert: With just a 4-inch wingspan and a weight of 1/2 gram, they make an astounding 3000-mile migration from North America to their Mexican overwintering grounds. However, over the past two decades, surveys of these two wintering populations have documented steep declines, with numbers dropping to levels that threaten extinction.
Backyard Gardeners can Save the Day
No matter where in the world you live, whether you have a garden, a meadow, a strip of dirt along your street or simply a garden pot, you can provide food and habitat for butterflies by planting flowers, shrubs or trees that they desperately need.
The list of plants that butterflies can thrive on is long and diverse. Many are low-maintenance, easy to grow, drought-tolerant and perennial… so you can plant them once and feed butterflies forever.
See “Attract Butterflies to Your Garden” in Organic Gardening Tips for a list of butterfly favorites.
Monarch caterpillars can thrive ONLY on milkweed. Check out the Xerces Society Milkweed Facts to learn how to supply Monarch caterpillars their critical food source. https://www.xerces.org/milkweed-faq
See Eco-Cool Kids for “Plant Something Pretty that Feeds Butterflies!“
There are fourteen species of the greater fritillary butterflies and sixteen lesser fritillaries. Named for their checkered pattern (the Latin word fritillus means chessboard), these species are wide-ranging throughout the western and northern Europe. They can be most often found in woodlands feasting on succulent spring and summer flowers such as this White Bog Orchid along Silent Creek in Southwestern Oregon. As caterpillars however, they can live only on violets.
Fritillaries, particularly the pearl-bordered fritillary named for the seven “pearls” that tip each wing, were once very abundant in North America and Europe. But they have declined rapidly in recent decades, and are now highly threatened in western Europe and completely absent from Ireland due to climate change, habitat loss and pesticide use in farming.
