CHASING BUTTERFLIES

American Beauty Butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis)

            We grew up with flowers,  and they grew up with us. But, they need different relationships with their surroundings in order to survive. For instance, most flowers need a relationships with insects, which is to say, their arthropod pollinator. We call this a mutual relationship, as both will benefit. The insect gets food and shelter, while the flower gets to pass on its genes and help create the next generation.

            When I was a child I was always playing outside, exploring new things and places. My aunt lives next door to me and when I was 12 she and my uncle built a greenhouse. She always loved flowers and decided to get into the business of growing and selling them. I and my sister would always love to go see what pretty things were growing at the different times of year. During the summer there would always be lots of insects in there, but due to the high heat most of them died before they could figure out how to escape. Me and my sister would love to go around and collect all of the butterflies that had died, we loved looking at their bright and wondrous colors. There were so many different kinds, colors, and shapes. I know that I was always amazed at how many different types we could find. We also found giant grasshoppers and cicadas, if the season was right. But we always went back to collecting butterflies.

            The student gardens at school has offered me a sanctuary and an opportunity to do my watching, my listening. These gardens are second nature, as while they are natural, they aren’t growing in an entirely natural way but are being managed by humans on a weekly basis. When I was here, I love to watch the butterflys, trying to get close enough to see their unique wing patterns. The two main butterfly species I saw were the American Lady ”Vanessa virginiensis” and the Cabbage White “Pieris rapae”. Both of these butterflys greatly enjoyed two main species of flowers, zinnias and cosmos.

            Gardens are a way of second nature, people plant and maintain them. While flowers are all natural, they aren’t always native to the area. In the wild, particular species of flowers tend to dominate an area, reseeding themselves with greater and greater effectiveness each season. In a garden humans like to blend species together and not let one of them simply take over. We like to mix species and colors to please our sense of beauty as we keep the beds tidy and each plant in its own place. Garden plantings aren’t in a fully natural order, but they still attract wild things such as the butterflies.

            While both of these butterfly species are found in the same garden, they prefer different flowers. Watching them flutter and float, I chased them around the garden to take even one good picture, which I never got. But in the process, I noticed that they always came back to their respective favorite pearch. The American Lady enjoyed the zinnias the best, while the White Cabbage preferred the cosmos. Both of these flowers are the hardies of all the flowers in the garden, and survived the longest into the cooler weather.

            The American Lady butterfly has a distinctive orange and black pattern on its wings with a few white spots on the front tips. During the year they have two different appearances. The first hatchlings of the year often sport larger wings with brighter orange, while the later adults are smaller and not as brightly patterned. American Ladys overwinter in the lower U.S., particularly  in Florida, and then migrate to the north during early spring time. They migrate north together but do not return south together, it is not clear why(Univ. Flordia).

            White Cabbage butterflies are a common species that almost everyone has encountered. They are nearly all white, with black tips on their front wings. Depending on its gender, each individual has ether one or two dark spots on its wings, one for males and two for females. Whites have one of the longest juvenile stages, taking a year in caterpillar form and then hibernating over winter as a chrysalis, before hatching into a adult butterfly the following spring.  Many farmers consider them to be pests due to the damage their caterpillar stage can inflict on crops, and spray pesticides to keep them off. The common person on the other hand enjoys them because they help pollinate flowers, and are pretty to watch(Painter). Although, I  must admit, they also have been chowing down on the cabbage in the garden where I was viewing them.

- Jenn Emmart

References:

"American Lady - Vanessa Virginiensis (Drury)." American Lady - Vanessa Virginiensis (Drury). University of Flordia, May 2009. 20 Nov. 2014. Website Nature, Mother. "American Lady Butterfly Dorsal View - Vanessa Virginiensis by Mother Nature." Fine Art America. Macro Photography, 11 July 2012. 01 Dec. 2014. Picture

Painter, Theresa. "Cabbage White." Cabbage White. Study of Northern Virginia Ecology, n.d. 20               Nov. 2014. Website

Slattery, Britt, Kathryn Reshetiloff, and Susan M. Zwicker. Native Plants for Wildlife Habitat and      Conservation Landscaping: Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Annapolis, MD: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Chesapeake Bay Field Office, 2005. Print.

Wild Ones Handbook: A Voice for the Natural Landscaping Movement. Milwaukee, WI. Wild Ones-- Natural Landscapers, 1997. Print.