The Life of Tropical Butterflies

Hello Lovelies!

 Tropical butterflies at the Detroit Zoo. via the "obsession with butterflies" site.

No TV At Home.

I don't have a TV at home, but I'm staying at a friend's right now and just saw a very interesting documentary on the life of tropical butterflies. And you know me, I'm crazy about butterflies!
This particular program was broadcasted by ARTE, the German-French TV. You can re-play this "X:enius" program here for a few days (in French and German).

photo found via Dominique's Browning's blog, Slow Love Life. No, wait! Dominique has indeed mentioned her love for caterpillars on her fantastic blog, but this particular image is via the jjjjound.com blog.

The Appetite of the Caterpillar.

One thing that really struck me, watching this program, was the caterpillars' huge appetite, for fresh leaves and for life! Maybe thats why they're called caterpillars, with cater like in catering? I'll have to check in a dictionary. But what I witnessed was the caterpillars' - of any species - huge growth, literally within days, following that massive eating of leaves.

Image from the program X:enius on ARTE TV

But Not Just Any Leaves... 

Most butterfly species feed on a specific herb, leaf or plant. That's what makes them so fragile. Hunters and collectors of exotic butterflies don't seem as much as a big threat as deforestation is, or the disappearance of a given environment.
Caterpillars are hungry indeed, but most times they would rather die than eat another leaf than the one they're used to eat! So if a given forest, with the given plants and trees that grow there, disappear, the butterflies disappear with their environment. Just another reason to protect tropical forests and wildlife!

 Funky Caterpillars, a triptych made of three of my Flickr faves.
1. Chenille de Bombyx à livrée (Malacosoma neustria) The Lackey caterpillar, 2. la chenille ne tient qu'a un fil, 3. Chenille Machaon (Papilio machaon) Swallowtail Caterpillar

Butterflies in Your Garden.

So you'd like to preserve butterflies and have plenty of them in your surroundings? That's quite simple really. You can either grow specific butterfly-attracting plants like the famous buddleia. Or you could simply let nature do the hard work and leave a small part of you garden unweeded. Yes! Grow weeds! "Weeds", or whatever plants grow naturally in your soil, are the most likely to attract the butterflies that would naturally develop there. Just wonderful, and simple!

-Vic from TeaButterfly.

buddleia !