Attracting Butterflies To Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat

NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION
1412 Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington D.C. 20036-2266

Brightly colored butterflies can be a welcome addition to your Backyard Wildlife Habitat. To attract the greatest number of butterflies and have them as residents in your yard you will need to have plants that serve the needs of all life stages of the butterfly. They need a place to lay eggs, food plants for the larva (caterpillar), a place to form a chrysalis, and nectar sources for the adult.

Most adult butterflies may live 20-40 days. Some, however, are believed to live no longer than three or four days, while others, such as overwintering monarchs, may live six months.

Adults searching for nectar are attracted to red, yellow, orange, pink, or purple blossoms that are flat-topped or clustered and have short flower tubes which allow the butterflies to reach the nectar with their proboscis. Nectar producing plants should be grown in open, sunny areas, as adults rarely feed on plants in the shade.

Some caterpillars are picky eaters, and rely on only one or two species of plants. The caterpillar of the giant swallowtail butterfly in the northeast and mid-Atlantic states feeds on just one native plant food - the northern prickly ash. Others, such as the red-spotted purple will feed on a variety of deciduous trees.

Here is a list of plants that can attract butterflies. Where appropriate, scientific names have been included:

Lilac
Red clover
Phlox
Yarrow
Honesty
Aubretia
Zinnia
Cosmos

Thyme
Hyssop
Calendula
Sedum spectabile
Golden alyssum
Common daylily
Lavender

Butterfly bush, Buddleia alternifolia and B. davidii
Joe-Pye weed, Eupatorium maculatum
Tickseed sunflowers, Bidens species
Goldenrods, Solidago species
Asters, many native species
Butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa and other milkweeds
Blazing stars, Liatris species
Thistles, native Cirsium species
New Jersey tea and other Ceanothus species
Dogbanes, Apocynum species
Meadowsweet, Spirea latifolia

Butterfly Facts

Over 700 species of butterflies are found in North America but very few are Agricultural pests.
Adult butterflies range in size from the half inch pigmy blue found in southern California, to the giant female Queen Alexandra's birdwing of New Guinea, which measures about 10 inches from wing tip to wing tip.
Butterfly tarsi or "feet" possess a sense similar to taste: contact with sweet liquids such as nectar causes the proboscis to uncoil.
Millions of shinglelike, overlapping scales give butterfly wings their colors and patterns. Metallic, irridescent hues come from faceted scales that refract light; solid colors are from pigmented scales.
During the time from hatching to pupating (forming the pupa or chrysalis), the caterpillar may increase its body size more than 30,000 times.
The chrysalises or pupae of many common gossamer wings -- a group of butterflies which includes the blues, hairstreaks and elfins -- are capable of producing weak sounds. By flexing and rubbing together body segment membranes, sounds are generated which may frighten off small predators and parasites.

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