|
Hummingbird flowers |
PLANTS TO ATTRACT AND FEED SONG BIRDS |
SEEDS AND TREATS FOR SONG BIRDS |
| Plant | Butterfly it attracts |
| Alfalfa | Eastern black swallowtail, orange sulphur, dogface, large wood nymph |
| Aster | Checkered white, common & orange sulphur, question mark, painted ladies, red admiral, buckeye |
| Black-eyed Susan | Great spangled fritillary, pearly crescentspot |
| Butterfly Bush | Swallowtails, mourning cloak, comma anglewing, painted ladies, red admiral |
| Daisy | Pearly crescentspot, red admiral, queen |
| Dandelion | Cabbage shite, common sulphur, comma anglewing, red admiral |
| Dogbane | Spicebush swallowtail, checkered white, common & orange sulphur, gray hairstreak, spring azure, pearly crescentspot, mourning cloak, American painted lady, buckeye |
| Goldenrod | Common & orange sulphur, gray hairstreak, American painted lady, red admiral, viceroy |
| Lantana | Swallowtails, cabbage white, Gulf fritillary |
| Lupine | Common blue |
| Marigold | Milbert's tortoiseshell, American painted lady |
| Milkweed | Swallowtails, checkered & cabbage white, common & orange sulphur, gray hairstreak, spring azure, pearly crescentspot, common blue, great spangled fritillary, question mark, mourning cloak, painted ladies, red admiral, viceroy, monarch, queen |
| Mint | Swallowtails, cabbage whie, gray hairstreak, painted ladies, red admiral, monarch, large wood nymph |
| Privet | Spring azure, painted ladies, red-spotted purple |
| Purple Coneflower | Silvery blue, great spangled fritillary |
| Queen Anne's Lace | Eastern black swallowtail, gray hairstreak |
| Red Clover | Cabbage white, great spangled fritillary, painted ladies, red admiral |
| Scabiosa | Painted ladies |
| Sweet Pea | Gray hairstreak |
| Sweet Pepperbush | Spicebush swallowtail, question mark, American painted lady, red admiral |
| Thistle | Swallowtails, dogface, Gulf fritillary, pearly crescentspot, Milbert's tortoiseshell, American painted lady, red admiral, viceroy, monarch |
| Verbena | Great spangled fritillary |
| Winter Cress | Checkered white, gray hairstreak, spring azure, pearly crecentspot |
One note for dedicated gardenners who may be appalled at the idea of actually inviting caterpillars in for lunch: very few butterfly species cause harm to garden plants. If they do become a nuisance - for instance, if cabbage whites are decimating your nasturtiums - picking the larvae off by hand is a simple task.
About puddles. Butterflies can't drink from birdbaths or other open water. But give them a damp spot of wet sand or dirt and they'll often flock around it. In some species, young bachelor butterflies most commonly exhibit this "puddling" behavior - perhaps the equivalent of visiting the local pub after work.
Butterflies need shelter from predators and wind. Ideal are hedges; groups of small trees or shrubs; or walls, fences, trellises covered with vines. Possible plantings include honeysuckle and butterfly bushes; and for vines, passion flower, pipevine, or hops. (For what to plant for various butterfly species, see "What Attracts Whom?" Above.
Common butterfly species lay their eggs on particular plants (usually trees), and it is often on the underside of their leaves that you'll find caterpillars. Some of these plants/trees and the butterfly larvae they host are milkweed, dogbane (monarch); cow parsnip, fennel, dill (swallowtails; cottonwood, wild cherry, willow, maple, alder (tiger swallowtail); willow, cottonwood (mourning cloak); birch, alder, willow, gooseberry, currant, wild rhododendron (anglewing); cabbage, mustard, nasturtium (cabbage white); thistle, pearly everlsting (painted lady).
When you have found a caterpillar, put it in a large can along with some of the kind of leaves it was feeding on. Clean and add fresh leaves as needed, along with some twigs. A caterpillar sheds its skin several times as it grows - when it sheds all its legs except those on its first three segments, it has reached full growth and will soon begin to spin its cocoon, attaching it to a twig or the bottom of the can.
The pupa (cocoon or chrysalis) stage lasts from ten days to eight months, depending on the species (this is where the patience comes in). You can move the pupae to a cage at this point - a cylinder of wire screen or one-quarter-ince hardware cloth upended on a paper plate with another paper plate for a top. Put a layer of peat moss or soil at the bottom, and spray the chrysalis from time to time with water to keep it from drying out (don't soak it).
Watch for movement and change in the appearance of the cocoon, because the hatching process can be quite short. Don't interfere. Although it may pull itself from the cocoon in only a few minutes, the emerging butterfly needs time to pump air and blood through its body and wings, and its outer skeleton needs to harden. The butterfly is usually ready to fly in about half an hour.
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