Victoria County Master         Gardener Association

Butterflies have new habitat

November 01, 2015

By Beth Ellis/Victoria County Master Gardener

Edited by Charla Borchers Leon/Victoria County Master Gardener

PHOTOS BY BETH ELLIS/VICTORIA COUNTY MASTER GARDENER

Two different instars (sizes) of monarch caterpillars are shown chomping on host milkweed leaves in the butterfly haven at Victoria Educational Gardens. Caterpillars advance through five instar stages before leaving the plant to form a chrysalis and eventually metamorphose into a butterfly.

This queen butterfly has recently emerged from its chrysalis, attached to a structural edge inside the new butterfly haven, with crumpled, damp wings that the butterfly will flex until they expand and dry.

This buckeye butterfly with wings that have large, iridescent eyespots is nectaring on an orange-colored bloom of a zinnia plant in the butterfly haven at Victoria Educational Gardens.

The new butterfly haven at Victoria Educational Gardens is planted with host and nectar plants and stocked with several different native butterfly species. Queen butterflies are shown nectaring on a blue mist flower plant in perimeter beds inside the butterfly haven.

As mentioned in last week's article, the Victoria County Master Gardeners have been hard at work during the past few months building a new butterfly haven at Victoria Education Gardens. The haven will be stocked with butterflies, nectar plants and caterpillar host plants so visitors can closely observe the entire butterfly life cycle - from egg, through the caterpillar and chrysalis stages and on to adulthood.

The Victoria Education Gardens butterfly haven is intended to act as an interactive opportunity for visitors to learn to identify native butterfly species and their caterpillars, what types of caterpillar host plants and butterfly nectar plants work best to attract them, and in the process gain lots of ideas they can apply to their own gardens.

Butterfly species

Several native butterfly species will be stocked in the haven over the course of the next few months.

Three swallowtail species will be represented, including yellow and black giant swallowtails, and the mostly black/iridescent blue eastern black and pipevine swallowtails. Monarchs as well as similarly appearing queen butterflies will stand out with their familiar orange and black coloring, as will eye popping orange-winged Gulf fritillaries. Visitors will also see buckeye butterflies, sporting wings decorated by large iridescent eyespots.

Caterpillar host plants

In order to attract and support butterfly species, it's important to include caterpillar host plants as well as flowering plants in any garden scheme. While adult butterflies can be fairly indiscriminate regarding nectar sources, their caterpillars are quite specific in their choice of food plants. Without the correct host plants upon which to feed, caterpillars will simply not survive.

Wise gardeners therefore include abundant host plants in addition to flowering plants in their flowerbeds, so that their gardens will quickly become occupied by recurring generations of home grown butterflies.

Host plants reflect species

Host plants included in the planting scheme for the butterfly haven at Victoria Education Gardens reflect the species to be stocked. Milkweed provides food for the caterpillars of both monarchs and queens. Gulf fritillary caterpillars feast on passionvine, and pipevine provides fodder for pipevine swallowtail caterpillars. Giant swallowtail caterpillars enjoy munching on citrus leaves, while parsley and fennel feed black swallowtail caterpillars. The caterpillars of buckeye consume the diminutive frogfruit.

Butterflies "taste" plant

While visiting the butterfly haven, guests are encouraged to observe the behavior of butterflies and caterpillars on or near host plants. When ready to lay eggs, female butterflies land and taste a plant with their feet - this is how they identify the correct host plant for their babies.

Caterpillars transition to butterflies

Observers will also note that caterpillars come in a range of sizes, called "instars." A caterpillar will actually molt between instars, and once it has completed its final instar, it will crawl away from the host plant, anchor itself to something, develop a chrysalis, and metamorphose into a butterfly. The wings of the newly-emerged butterfly are crumpled and damp - the new butterfly will rest and slowly flex its wings until they expand and dry out.

Nectar plants

Visitors to the butterfly haven will see a variety of different butterfly nectar plants, some of which (such as milkweed, frogfruit, kumquat, and passionvine) will pull double duty as caterpillar host plants. Other nectar plants include lantana, blue mist flower, coneflower, aster, penta, zinnias, salvias, snapdragons, Angelonia, cestrum, esperanza and hibiscus.

Many of these flowers provide broad landing surfaces, which make them attractive to butterflies that prefer to perch while nectaring. Others have funnel shaped flowers, which appeal to strong flyers such as swallowtails.

Ideas to take home

Guests are encouraged to take note of all they see while visiting our butterfly haven. While most people don't have large butterfly enclosures where they can closely observe the butterfly life cycle, they can still apply what they learn at Victoria Educational Gardens to their own gardens. By doing so, they will soon create their own free-flying, free-crawling butterfly and caterpillar haven.

The Gardeners' Dirt is written by members of the Victoria County Master Gardener Association, an educational outreach of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension - Victoria County. Mail your questions in care of the Advocate, P.O. Box 1518, Victoria, TX 77901; or vcmga@vicad.com.