Butterflies
Butterflies, from the migrating monarch to the shimmering blue morpho, are among the most beloved insects. These guides cover their life cycles, feeding, identification, and the remarkable journeys some of them make.
Pure garden good news. A butterfly means you're growing the right host plants, so plant more of them.
Size
20 to 200 mm
wingspan, skipper to morpho
Diet
Nectar and host leaves
flowers as adults, leaves as larvae
Habitat
Meadows to rainforest
gardens and woodland edges
Lifespan
A week to eight months
monarchs migrate the longest
Species
Around 18,000
worldwide
Life cycle
Every butterfly here, from monarchs to morphos, runs the same four-stage change.
-
Egg Laid one at a time on the exact host plant the caterpillar will need, often under a leaf.
-
Caterpillar The eating stage. It grows fast, molting several times, and does all the plant feeding.
-
Chrysalis It hangs and hardens into a chrysalis, rebuilding completely inside over days or weeks.
-
Adult The butterfly emerges, pumps up its wings, and switches to a diet of nectar.
The fastest way to get more butterflies is to stop being tidy. Leave the nettles and the thistles, plant the host species each one actually needs, and put the spray down. They find you far quicker than you'd think once the larder is stocked.
Sam Fielding · field note · about Sam
Typical season
Peak from mid to late summer; monarchs stream through in the fall migration.
Often confused with
Moths
Feathered antennae, mostly fly at night, and rest with wings flat or tented
Caterpillars
The larval stage; every butterfly here spent weeks as one first
A monarch hatched in late summer can live eight months and fly to Mexico; its own parents lived barely a month.
Monarchs
The famous one. Orange with black veins, toxic to birds from a milkweed-only childhood, and the only butterfly that migrates like a bird.
A threatened swallowtail caterpillar everts a bright orange forked gland that smells strong enough to turn a bird away.
Swallowtails
The big showy ones, named for the tails trailing off each hindwing. Strong fliers you'll see gliding across gardens all summer.
Zebra longwings eat pollen as well as nectar, which lets them live for months rather than the usual few weeks.
Zebra Longwings
Long black wings striped in pale yellow, slow and floaty in flight. Florida's state butterfly, and one that roosts in groups at night.
A blue morpho's wings hold no blue pigment; microscopic scales bend light, so the color is structural and never fades.
Blue Morphos
The electric-blue tropical giant. That famous blue is a flash of structural color; the undersides are drab brown eyespots for hiding.
A red admiral will land on you for the salt in your sweat, one of the few butterflies that willingly approaches people.
Other Garden Butterflies
The reliable regulars: painted ladies, red admirals, and cabbage whites. Widespread, easy to attract, and a good place to start learning wings.