If your dream is to have your very own Garden of Eden, complete with beautiful butterflies, there are specific host plants you should plant that will provide for larval growth and adult feeding. Before you begin to create a butterfly garden, it is necessary to first learn more about the magical butterfly itself.
Just exactly what is a butterfly?
The insect order known as "lepidoptera" is made up of butterflies and moths. Butterflies account for about 8 percent of this species of insects, while the other 92 percent consists of moths.
Butterflies use their tiny, paper-thin wings in flight while searching for specific hosts for egg-laying. They also search for plants and flowers containing nectar for adult feeding while flying. Butterflies need nectar for energy to fly and to reproduce. Tiny scales cover the adult butterfly's wings that aid them during these critical searches.
On close inspection, you will see that butterflies have very large eyes, allowing them to see in every direction without turning their heads. This unique feature of their anatomy helps them locate flowers and larval host plants more easily. They have a mouthpart called a proboscis, which they use for probing and sucking nectar from flowers. All butterflies have a club-shaped antennae that are most often feathery. However, their antennaes can be very differently shaped, depending upon the species.
Butterflies have evolved a mechanism that isolates and concentrates certain noxious host plant chemicals into their caterpillars. Only female butterflies search for the specific host plants that will provide these chemicals to their caterpillars. These host plants are where the female butterfly will eventually lay her eggs. During pupation, these same chemicals are distributed into the wings and bodies of the butterflies, making them distasteful to predators such as birds.
Each butterfly begins life as an egg, laid either singly or in clusters on a host plant. From there, its tiny caterpillar emerges and begins to feed on the host plant. Before the adult butterfly emerges from its caterpillar, it must crawl out of its skin about five times before changing into a pupa. After the butterfly finally emerges, it spreads its gloriously colored wings and flies away. This incredible, almost mystical, process of development is called metamorphosis.
How will the butterfly survive?
After taking flight, the butterfly immediately begins its lifelong search for nectar to sustain its life. This is where you as an informed butterfly gardener can play a critical role in helping the butterfly to survive. By planting flowers and shrubs that produce nectar, you will enable the butterfly to thrive and multiply.
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