Butterflies eat (drink or sip) nectar through a straw-like mouth part called a proboscis  (pro-boss-kiss). Nectar is a sugar rich liquid produced by flowering plants like cosmos, verbena, zinnias, butterfly bush and yarrow.  There are thousands of flowers that butterflies can obtain nectar from.

Along with nectar, the male butterfly also needs a variety of minerals, which they acquire by sipping on ripe or rotting fruit, tree sap, piles of manure or mud.  This typical butterfly behavior is called puddling.

If you have butterflies in a cage or enclosure for more than a day, they will need to be fed.  They can be fed a variety of ripe juicy fruits, like watermelon, melons, oranges, cherries, strawberries, peaches and plums. Caged butterflies will also enjoy sipping on Gatorade and homemade nectar.   You can make your own butterfly nectar by mixing 4 parts water to 1 part granulated sugar.  Boil the mixture for a few minutes then be sure to allow the sugar mixture to cool before feeding butterflies.  Use cotton balls soaked with either the homemade nectar or Gatorade and placed on a small plate.  If the enclosure is large enough, you can also place a few potted flowering butterfly nectar plants inside to keep the butterflies happy and well fed.

To help keep male butterflies happy and enticing to female butterflies in your garden or enclosure, be sure to include a “puddling” area.  This can be done by place smooth round stones in a shallow dish along with some mud or wet soil.

If you know of a certain flower, fruit or other sweet treat that butterflies seem to love, please share your knowledge with our readers and leave us a comment below.

Enjoy the butterflies,

Vickie

Got the Blues?  If you can’t beat them join em!

(Square-spotted & Dotted Buckwheat Blues)

Whether your feeling a bit low or not, chilling with some Blues is bound to better your mood. I found this straggle of buckwheat lovers partying it up on the trail to Holy Jim Falls in the Santa Ana Mountains, CA. The females were laying eggs, the males were puddling… all were having a grand time just hanging with the soft, lush buckwheat ( Eriogonum fasciculatum foliolosum). Don’t get me wrong, being with these guys was very cool and I loved every moment of it, but keeping company with the Buckwheat Blues can also be very confusing. Even after sharing an intimate afternoon with these butterflies, I still could not clearly tell who was a dot and who was a square.

Fred Heath, a fellow groupie and author of An Introduction to Southern California Butterflies, had this to say about his experiences with these particular butterflies. “Distinguishing the Square-spotted Blue (Euphilotes battoides) from the Dotted Blue (Euphilotes enoptes) is quite difficult…”. Mr. Heath goes on to say that “Generally, the Square-spotted has heavier black markings below, including the lines along the margins, and the orange in its hindwings is continuous as opposed to being separated into spots.”

Hmmmmm, thanks so very much to Mr. Heath, could be my mellow state of being, but I am still feeling a bit bemused as to which species is which here. DNA barcoding where are you when I need you! (read more on this here http://www.lepbarcoding.org/index.php ) Based on what I can see I am guessing that both of the aforementioned species were represented on the trail to Holy Jim Falls, although, I am not certain and welcome any feedback or commentary. Just don’t bring me down ok… or else I’ll have to be off chasing those blues again… -K.D’Angelo