Why should we care about butterflies? The most obvious answer is that they are beautiful in the same way that we care about and admire great art, sculpture, ancient carvings, and the talents of the artists. But we can go further--butterflies are an indicator of a healthy planet. Yet butterflies are disappearing because of continuous development of
roads, houses, factories and all the rest of civilization. Air quality is a factor; so is the disappearance of wild areas and water pollution.
The simple act of building a house on a large lot and surrounding it with lush, fertilized green lawn is hurting butterflies and all other animal species (except for the grubs that live in the lawn and turn into Japanese beetles!) In many metropolitan areas the majority of neighborhoods and developments are surrounded by green lawn but no other
plants--maybe a lone tree in the middle of the lawn. What a waste of land and resources. The farm areas in the Midwest are also at fault with their mono-crops of corn, soybeans, lack of hedgerows, and pre-weeded soil and seeds. How are monarch butterflies expected to fly the several thousand miles to Mexico from the northern U.S. and Canada with no food to support them on
the journey?
In addition to beauty and diversity of species, butterflies and moths are also pollinators. We talk a lot about insect pollinators--insects such as bees, wasps, and small mammals. The butterfly's instinct is to sip nectar from flowers--that is the way they co-evolved. The plants don't move but the insects do. They travel to the useful plants
(native plants) that they know will supply the nectar which they need to survive and to be able to lay eggs and reproduce.
Here is a very real example of a local effort to restore and preserve habitat for a specific species of butterfly: the last remaining habitat for the Regal Fritillary in the eastern half of our continent is located at Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania, very close to Harrisburg and Middletown. For more information you can search this site: RA-DMVA-Wildlife@pa.gov.
This butterfly habitat includes at least 5,000 violets per acre for the larvae (caterpillars) to eat, about 150 milkweed and thistle per acre for the adult butterflies to take nectar from, and 30-75 percent vegetation cover of native warm-season bunch grasses like little bluestem and broom sedge where caterpillars live and feed until they metamorphose into butterflies.
This is certainly a reason not to spray your lawn for weeds because the common violet is a broadleaf plant and that means that when you spray for dandelions and clover (another no-no) you are also killing violets--those pretty little plants that bloom in spring and children make into nosegays.
We are lucky to live in Pennsylvania--there are more than 800 recorded species of butterflies and 156 have been recorded in Pennsylvania. Our geography is diverse and includes fields, mountains, forests, and wetlands. Butterflies need all these areas to thrive.
Before European explorers arrived in America, this country was pristine wilderness inhabited by Native Americans. During the Colonial Period from 1600 to 1776, scientists began to collect and classify plants and animals. Carl Linnaeus was the first to officially name American insects, including the Monarch butterfly. The original specimens that
Linnaeus described were collected in Pennsylvania and New York.
During the late 18th and 19th centuries, the growing interest in science resulted in the creation of natural history museums, published studies and the creation of entomological societies. In Pennsylvania, Simon Snyder Rathvon published in 1869 a list of butterflies of Lancaster County, the first county list to appear in the state, with 53 species.
Through most of the 20th century, butterfly collecting became popular, and state lists and publications about butterflies grew in number. In the past 40 years, there has been increased interest in butterfly watching, photography and habitat conservation. The dissemination of studies and data on the Internet makes is easy to access all of this information for scientists
and hobbyists alike.
Some people wonder how to classify butterflies, skippers and moths. The general classification is that butterflies and skippers fly during the day (diurnal) and moths fly at night (nocturnal). This is a general definition--some moths are active during the day but butterflies like the sun. Butterflies are generally brightly colored whereas moths may
be pale or drab Typically the butterfly antennae are clubbed, the skipper's antennae are tapered and the moths have a variety of antenna types, from a single filament to feathery branches.
Adult butterflies can live from a few days to several weeks in nature. They don't actually eat--they sip nectar and in the process help to pollinate plants. Their ultimate goal is to locate a mate and lay eggs. The caterpillar which is the larval stage of the butterfly spends its time eating leaves--many caterpillars are quite specific in their
choices of food (the Monarch is the best known for only eating milkweed).
Much of the information in this article was gleaned from the field guide Butterflies of Pennsylvania by James L. Monroe and David M. Wright, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press (2017). This book was provided to all the Penn State Master Gardeners, who this year are embarking on a trial period of counting the butterflies that frequent
Pennsylvania and use goldenrod (Solidago) and Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium maculatum) for pollination and nectaring.
