Entomologist Shares Secrets On Attracting Butterflies

By Jan Howard

Many varieties of beautiful butterflies can be attracted to local gardens through the planting of shrubs, flowers and trees that are their sources of food.

Carol Lemmon, deputy state entomologist with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, presented a talk and slide show on Butterfly Gardening at the C.H. Booth Library on February 15. She is a co-founder of the Connecticut Butterfly Association, which now numbers about 110 members.

In her talk, Ms Lemmon identified butterflies that return to Connecticut year after year. She also advised which plants would provide the necessary food sources for larva and nectar for adult butterflies, and what can be done to encourage the survival of butterfly populations.

She also provided hints on identifying caterpillars and where they can be found.

“If you want to attract caterpillars, don’t use pesticides, even ones that are safe for animals,” Ms Lemmon said.

“We promote butterflies because they are very valuable,” Ms Lemmon told the 20 or so persons attending her slide lecture. “It’s nice to be able to identify them by groups.”

Butterfly eggs are of all colors and shapes, she said. They also spread their eggs so they don’t do major damage to a garden.

Butterflies and moths differ in their antennae, she said. Butterflies have clubbed antennae with a hook. Moths’ antennae are straight or feathered.

Butterflies may only live for 30 days, from egg to adult. Very few butterflies live longer than two weeks, she said. One, an angle-edged woodland butterfly, lives for a year. It feeds on sap, fruit and even dung.

“The butterfly’s goal is to lay eggs. Then they die,” she said.

The Question Mark anglewing comes out in 45 degree weather, Ms Lemmon said. They are hard to find, she said, because they are “masters at camouflage.”

She said butterflies need minerals and salt, and you might see them on the ground “puddling.” They use their tongues to suck up nutrients, which are very important to them.

Swallowtail and black and orange Monarch butterflies are among the most common and recognizable of butterfly varieties.

Swallowtails feed on red clover, purple loosestrife, goldenrod, Japanese honeysuckle, thistle, Joe-Pye-Weed, butterfly bush, abelia, sweet pepper bush, jewelweed, and milkweed.

Swallowtail caterpillars feed on parsley, carrot, dill, and fennel, spicebush, sassafras, and wild cherry, willow, and poplar.

“I specifically plant parsley and fennel for the caterpillar to feed on,” Ms Lemmon said.

Queen Anne’s Lace is another popular source of food for caterpillars.

The last generation of Monarch butterflies migrates to Mexico, Ms Lemmon said. Great numbers of them leave Connecticut by flying over Long Island Sound. “Hawks won’t fly over water, but these little butterflies with gossamer wings will,” she said.

They live in Mexico until about February when they fly to Texas, lay eggs, and die. By mid June others continue to Canada, she said.

Monarch cocoons can be found on milkweed leaves.

Clouded Sulfur and Cloudless Sulfur butterflies feed on clover, milkweed, dogbane, dandelion, and goldenrod, she said. Larval host plants include clover, vetch and trefoil.

The Cabbage White butterfly entered Canada in 1920 and has spread over much of the east coast. It feeds on mustards, cresses and selfheal. Its larva feeds on vegetable garden crops, such as broccoli, kale, cauliflower and cabbage.

 But “Not all whites are bad guys,” Ms Lemmon said. The Falcate Orangetip, a white, likes nectar from chickweed, arabis, violets and wild strawberry. Its larva feeds on arabis and hedge mustard. It is one of the earliest butterflies, appearing mid-April to mid-May. There is only one generation a year.

Hairstreaks, such as the Coral hairstreak, which has coral stripes,  and Eastern Pine elfin, feed on nectar from meadowsweet, white sweet clover, and blueberry, in addition to some plants already mentioned. Hairstreak larva feed on wild cherry, choke cherry, pussy willow, hickory, willow, blueberry, wild lupines, American holly, pine and red cedar, among others.

Caterpillars shed their skin five times, Ms Lemmon said. They often feed by use of webbing.

They are also well adapted for survival. Ms Lemmon said their tongues have a dreadful smell, which is used as a defense against wasps and other insects that prey on them.

“It helps them live another day,” she said.

Ms Lemmon said butterflies are easy to photograph when they first emerge from their cocoons. Their wings are folded and they move around to let their wings dry. “They will stay for an hour to dry their wings. They will crawl up your finger, and you can put them on a plant to photograph them.”