Butterflies

Its colors are often striking, its flight mesmerizing, and its life cycle fascinating. What is it?

It's the beautiful butterfly that so many of us enjoy watching. However, butterflies do more than make the world a pretty place. Butterflies carry pollen from flower to flower and help many plants, including fruits and vegetables, grow. Their larval form, the caterpillars, are at the bottom of the food chain and provide food to many birds, lizards, and other animals.

Scientists sort and classify life. Butterflies, skippers, and moths are in the order called Lepidoptera, which means scaled wings. Indeed, if you have a chance to look at a butterfly's wing, you will see that it is covered in tiny scales. The scales come off easily when you handle the wing. Butterflies and moths are the only insects to have these. You many wonder why they are called butterflies, since butter is more of a familiar item in your fridge. Some experts think that the word may come from a common group of yellow European butterflies, the sulphurs. At one time the sulphurs were called the "the butter-colored fly," which was shortened to butterfly and eventually went into common use for all butterflies.

Metamorphosis is the term that describes the four very different stages in the life cycle of a butterfly. First, the female butterfly lays her eggs on a plant that will provide plenty of food to the caterpillars when they hatch. This plant is specific to each butterfly species and is called the host plant. The second stage starts when the caterpillar hatches from its egg. During this stage, the caterpillar is an eating machine and even eats its own eggshell. Some species may eat 20 times their own weight! Next, the plump and well-fed caterpillar enters the third stage, the pupa or chrysalis stage. The caterpillar attaches itself to a stem, and then slips out of its old skin to expose a tough new skin. This hardens and becomes the chrysalis. Inside the chrysalis, the caterpillar dissolves into a thick liquid and reforms as a butterfly. When ready, the butterfly emerges from the chrysalis. This is the fourth and final stage of its life cycle. The butterfly flies away in search of nectar plants to feed on. It will mate and the cycle will begin anew.

Butterfly diagram from Wikimedia.

Butterflies have interesting adaptations for living. Their skeletons are on the outside instead of the inside like ours. They use their wings to glide and soar just like a bird. They taste with their feet or tarsi. As soon as they land, they can taste whether the flower is the one they want. They also use their antennae to find nectar through the sense of smell. The nectar is found deep inside a flower, and sipping it requires a very special drinking tube. So, butterflies have a very long drinking straw called a proboscis that they keep curled under their heads. When they find nectar, they unroll the proboscis and take a sip.

Would you like to know what it is like to drink like a butterfly? Try connecting three to four straws together so they become one long straw. Then fill a glass with fruit juice and put your extra long straw in it. Now you are ready to try sipping nectar just like a butterfly!

Plant a Butterfly Paradise

This spring the Kinnikinnick Club kids and other community members plan to work together to plant a butterfly garden at PEEC. The groundbreaking ceremony will be at the Earth Day Festival on Saturday, April 24th, 2010. By being careful observers, we hope to develop a list of host plants and nectar plants for each species in our area. With this knowledge, all of us in Los Alamos can help restore their habitat by planting butterfly gardens at our homes. For a list and pictures of common butterflies in Los Alamos, visit the PEEC Butterfly Nature Guide and Butterfly Slide Show. Another good resource is the North American Butterfly Association (http://www.nababutterfly.com/).

For information about planting your own butterfly garden, see Backyard Wildlife Habitats.