Gardening for Butterflies

Short Description
Butterflies have long fascinated people with their beautiful wings and whimsical flight. They also are extremely important ecologically. Butterflies pollinate flowering plants and serve as food for other organisms, thus forming an important link in the food chain. Populations have declined in recent decades, owing to increased pesticide use (especially herbicides); loss of fencerows; urbanization and other destruction of habitat; and loss of caterpillar host and nectar plants. Managing your garden for butterflies can help to conserve butterfly populations as well as greatly enhance a traditional garden.

Website: pubs.cas.psu.edu | Filesize: 390kb
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Content
There are about 750 butterfly and skipper species in North America, and about 10 times that number of moths. Butterflies, moths, and skippers combined form the order of insects named Lepidoptera, meaning “scaly winged.” The wings are covered with thousands of tiny scales, which form the spots and stripes that we see. Skippers are considered an intermediate form between moths and butterflies. The body shape is similar to a moth’s, but skippers are active during the day, like butterflies. One hundred forty-six species of butterflies and skippers have been reported in Pennsylvania. Of these, twenty-four have been documented only a few times and should be considered rare visitors.
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The life of a butterfly is marked by four vastly different stages: egg, caterpillar, pupa, and adult. The egg hatches into a caterpillar, which immediately feeds on the leaf of the plant where it has hatched. In fact, rapid growth is the main objective of the caterpillar stage. You can see this reflected in the caterpillar’s body structure—primarily a set of strong jaws for chewing and a digestive tract for processing food.
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