The Right Plants for Butterflies

Have you ever been surprised to find caterpillars munching away on your garden veggies, herbs, or flowers? Some people might get upset about it, but early childhood teachers and their students seem to get very excited. By planning ahead you can create an environment that "calls" these visitors to your garden. In the spring my children were watering their garden and found caterpillars on the mature Violas (Johnny Jump-Ups) that they had planted in late fall. I googled what types of butterfly use Violas as a host plant and found that it was the Variegated Fritillary. We were able to collect a few, observe the changes and eventually were able to release the young adult butterflies. This happened again this fall when someone called me and said that there were caterpillars eating down their mature snapdragons. Again, I went online and found that the Buckeye butterfly used these plants as hosts. After collecting some of the larvae and plants, I put up a butterfly habitat in the science center. The children only had to wait a few days to observe the larva changing into their chrysalis. After only two weeks, we were able to release the beautifully marked Buckeyes. It was a bonus to see the colorful circle shapes on their wings, which tied nicely into finding shapes in our environment. Other plants to consider are: dill and fennel for Swallowtails, milkweed for Monarchs, and passion vine for Gulf Fritillaries. You can see a time lapse video of the variegated caterpillar eating if you go to http://prekladybugs.posterous.com/finding-caterpillars-in-the-garden

Buckeye Butterfly 1 day 16 hours ago	Variegated Fritillary Larva (J-Stage) 1 day 16 hours ago	Variegated Fritillary Chrysalis 1 day 16 hours ago
Variegated Fritillary Emerging 1 day 16 hours ago	Variegated Fritillary Release 1 day 16 hours ago