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Elisabeth C. Miller Library

Keyword: Butterflies

Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA)

“The Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) project is an ambitious effort to collect and provide access to quality-controlled data about butterflies and moths for the continent of North America from Panama to Canada.” Species observations submitted by citizen-scientists and verified by experts populate a map-linked database. Users may search the database by location or species to find detailed records with fields such as caterpillar host plants and habitat.

butterfly conservation in the Pacific Northwest

I have become interested in helping with the conservation of monarch butterflies, whose caterpillars feed only on milkweed. We are supposed to plant milkweed. I am also gradually converting my small Seattle garden to a native-plant garden. Do these two goals contradict each other? Are any of the milkweeds native to Seattle and vicinity? Would monarchs themselves be an exotic species here?

It’s wonderful that you want to help with butterfly conservation. Monarch butterflies are not frequently seen in the Puget Sound region and, as you may be aware, it is too cold for them to overwinter here (they need an air temperature of at least 50 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Jerry Sedenko’s The Butterfly Garden [Villard Books, 1991]). However, you can do several things to make your home landscape hospitable to the pollinators we do have in our area, including not using any pesticides in your garden and persuading your friends and neighbors to refrain from using them also.

The Monarch Joint Venture project links to the Xerces Society’s Milkweeds: A Conservation Practitioner’s Guide which has information on milkweed species and their natural habitats. The plants recommended by the MJV for the West are Asclepias speciosa and Asclepias fascicularis but these plants may not be successful in the Puget Sound region. Both species are found mostly east of the Cascades as these maps from the USDA show. (click on the detail maps for Washington State)

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has useful information(now archived) about Western Monarchs, as well as separate pollinator conservation resources (for different types of pollinators–not Monarchs) for the Pacific Northwest.

You might be most effective in supporting the Monarch conservation effort financially but devoting your gardening efforts to conservation of species that are native to our area. Here are the Xerces Society’s list of Pacific Northwest butterflies and bees.

The Puget Sound Beekeepers Association has information on bee-friendly gardening.

The issue of using native plants in our urban gardens is a complex one. How do we define the native status of a plant? Sometimes the only plants available in nurseries are cultivated varieties of native species: are they still ‘native?’ Are plants that have naturalized in our area native? Do we have the ideal conditions in our garden to sustain native plants?

My personal outlook on this is that it’s best not to think too rigidly about what is native and what is not, but instead to be vigilant about what is overly aggressive or definitively noxious and invasive, and to try to grow a diverse range of plants that will thrive without excessive watering, fertilizing, and fuss, and select plants (native and otherwise) will attract birds, beneficial insects, and local species of butterfly. Here is Washington State University Extension horticulturist Linda Chalker-Scott’s essay on the topic of native plants.

Monarch butterflies and plant damage

Will Monarch butterflies do damage to plants if they are released in a garden at their adult stage?

 

The adult Monarch butterfly eats flower nectar, not leaves (the caterpillar form eats the leaves of one plant, milkweed–Asclepias), so that should not be damaging in any way.

I would question the practice of purchasing and releasing butterflies, though. It is not a good environmental practice, and can be harmful to the released butterflies and native butterfly populations. The North American Butterfly Association has information on this issue, excerpted below.

“Most fifth graders can tell you how the magnificent Monarch butterflies migrate thousands of miles every autumn from the United States and Canada to a few small mountain tops in Mexico. There they find the right environmental conditions that allow them to survive the winter. With the advent of spring, they begin their return journey. This migratory phenomenon is truly a wonder of nature that sparks the imagination.

Now imagine tens of thousands of mixed-up Monarchs unable to find the way to their overwintering grounds. This depressing image may become a reality if the rapidly-growing fad of releasing butterflies, including Monarch butterflies, at weddings, state fairs, and other public events continues to spread. Because the released Monarchs may have come from California, for instance, where they do not migrate to Mexico, their offspring may not be able to orient properly,. Because the Monarchs were raised inside under unnatural conditions, it is possible that their delicate migratory physiology may not have been turned on.

Public interest in butterflies is increasing dramatically. We hope and expect this greater involvement with butterflies will eventually lead to much-needed support for butterfly conservation and studies, but the release of live butterflies is the dark side of this increase in popularity. Although this practice is understandable to naive newlyweds-to-be (what could be more beautiful than adding butterflies to the environment?) it is really a particularly long-lasting form of environmental pollution.

Butterflies raised by unregulated commercial interests may spread diseases and parasites to wild populations, with devastating results. Often, butterflies are released great distances from their points of origin, resulting in inappropriate genetic mixing of different populations when the same species is locally present. When it is not, a non-native species is being introduced in the area of release. At best, this confuses studies of butterfly distribution and migration; at worst, it may result in deleterious changes to the local ecology. The Hollywood Jurassic park message, “Don’t fool with Mother Nature,” has scientific foundations. Recently a high profile report in Science magazine found that even the careful introduction of species for biological control often causes unexpected negative results.

In addition, these releases create a commercial market for live butterflies (currently about $10/apiece), with the result that, for example, the Monarch overwintering sites in Mexico and on the California coast are now targets for poachers.

Currently, the interstate shipment of live butterflies requires a permit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture but this law is not usually enforced. In general, the Dept. of Agriculture may issue a permit for shipping any of the following species: Monarch, Painted Lady, American Lady, Red Admiral, Giant Swallowtail, Gulf Fritillary, Zebra (Heliconian), and Mourning Cloak. Shipping Red Admirals, Giant Swallowtails, Gulf Fritillaries and Zebra (Heliconians) is particularly inappropriate because they are not naturally found over much of the United States.

A solution that better serves the public interest with less regulatory burden is to ban the environmental release of commercially-obtained butterflies (we would exempt education institutions, although even here we would encourage schools to keep commercially-obtained butterflies within the confines of the school). The intentional release of native birds was outlawed in 1947. The time has come to do the same with butterflies.”

Garden Tip #116

The popular Butterfly Bush, Buddleja davidii, has proven to be a weed. Found growing in natural areas far from any garden, Buddleja’s seeds are dispersed by the wind. Oregon and Washington both list it as a noxious weed.

What is a butterfly loving gardener to do? Try Blue Mist shrub (Caryopteris x clandonensis ‘Black Knight’ ) as a blue/purple, summer flowing shrub substitute or at least only grow the named Buddleja cultivars or the species Buddleja globosa which may be less of a threat.

Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest

[Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest] cover

Summer is a great time to see butterflies and now there is an excellent new field guide. Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest by Robert Michael Pyle and Caitlin C. LaBar is the perfect tool to guide you in identifying and learning about the more than 200 species that are native to Washington and Oregon. It “is intended for everyone who wishes to study, watch, collect, photograph, garden, or otherwise enjoy butterflies responsibly.”

This Timber Press Field Guide has a sturdy, rain-resistant cover designed for field use. The Miller Library copy is an important reference source and not available to check out, but you can use it to compare with your field notes. Alternatively, check out Pyle’s earlier (2002) The Butterflies of Cascadia. The major difference between two books is the quality of the photographs. The advent of digital photography and the special expertise that new co-author LaBar brings have produced stunning results.

Each description includes range maps (within Washington and Oregon), habitat, host plants, and when the species is “on the wing.” Carefully documented are the often significant differences between males and females, and between dorsal (with the wings open) and ventral (wings closed) views.

Pyle also writes poetry, and his pleasure in the subtleties of language is evident in the anecdotal section under each species. He describes unusual sightings, gives hints for distinguishing between similar species, and relishes quirks of nomenclature. If you are city bound this summer, he even identifies those species that thrive despite intense urban environments.

Published in the August 2018 Leaflet for Scholars, Volume 5 Issue 8.

Monarchs and Milkweed

Monarchs and milkweeds book cover “Monarchs and Milkweed” is like a mystery novel of the highest order. Who will survive? The butterfly or the weed? Even better, this is not fiction!

Anurag Agrawal’s writing is very compelling. I read the pages of his book as quickly as any whodunit. The characters include the baby caterpillar monarchs, trying to survive their first encounter with their only source of food, the leaves of milkweed. Many do not.

The milkweed plant has many ways to protect itself including its own gooey latex-like sap, or by coaxing monarch predators to do the job. There is good reason for this – the plant gains nothing from its interaction as the adult butterflies are not helpful pollinators.

In contrast, the larval and adult butterflies gain a toxicity that protects them from significant predation by birds. But this toxicity is not effective against other insects or various parasites. The plant seems to know this. The battle of coevolution moves on.

Agrawal is a scientist who interweaves his personal life and research. He discovered the caterpillar of an unknown species, brought it into his living room, watched it pupate, and then emerge from its chrysalis as a butterfly. This was a serendipitous lesson in mimicry as it was a viceroy butterfly, with similar coloration to a monarch and thereby gaining some of its protection, even though it lacks toxicity for birds.

This year’s winner of the CBHL Award of Excellence in Gardening and Gardens, “Monarchs and Milkweed” has wide appeal, even for parts of the country like ours outside of the natural range of monarchs.

Excerpted from the Summer 2018 Arboretum Bulletin.

Garden Tip #143

Want to encourage butterflies to take up residence in your garden this year? Red Osier Dogwood and willows are just a few of the plants that caterpillars eat, while adult butterflies drink the nectar from Western Mock Orange and zinnias. Read a brochure produced by the Washington chapter of the North American Butterfly Association to learn more about what plants support butterflies (pdf).For a print copy send $5 to Butterfly Gardens & Habitats, 909 Birch St., Baraboo, WI 53913 USA. Specify “Western Washington”)