Lavender is a beautiful purple plant that not only smells wonderful and has calming properties, attracts butterflies as well. Let’s jump in! Lavender There are many species of butterfly that are attracted to lavender. When you’re landscaping your yard, you have the option to decide to get plants that will attract butterflies.īut what plants attract butterflies best? Let’s take a deep dive into a number of different pollinator attracting plants that will bring butterflies to your yard. While there are obvious reasons certain birds are good to have in your garden to keep insects away, butterflies have their benefits as well, especially for pollination purposes. But did you know there are certain plants that attract butterflies to your home or garden more frequently? “Insect defenses” by David Evans and Justin Schmidt, and “Caterpillars of Eastern North America” by David Wagner were used as references.Butterflies are beautiful insects that most people love to see and are often associated with transformation and hope. The wonderful meadows, gardens, and forests of Cacapon State Park were the backdrop for observing several species of swallowtail butterflies. Acknowledgementsīug of the Week thanks Eloise for spotting the beautiful wood nymph butterfly and providing inspiration for this episode. Next time you see what appears to be a bird dropping resting on a leaf, take a second look and you might be treated to the discovery of one of many tiny masters of a frequently overlooked and unusual disguise. Those commonly found in our area include dill and parsley munching black swallowtail caterpillars, eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillars which dine on leaves of tulip poplar, magnolia, and several other species, and pretty spicebush swallowtail caterpillars often found on sassafras as well as spice bush. Larvae of several species of swallowtail butterflies mimic bird droppings in the early stages of development. The caterpillar of the gorgeous red-spotted purple butterfly feeds on leaves of cherry, oak, and poplar and resembles a rather large and gooey bird dropping. How clever is this? What self-respecting insectivorous bird eats a bird dropping, right? Forged by eons of selection, many insects have evolved a mien bearing a very close resemblance to a bird dropping. While watching the action and dodging birds, not once did I see a bird attempt a taste-test of droppings deposited by the rest of the flock. While awaiting the next meal, birds returned to lofty perches and relieved themselves, thereby creating quite a mess on tables and chairs below. As diners dropped crumbs or abandoned their meals, starlings swooped down to battle over morsels on the ground and scavenge uneaten tidbits from lunch plates. Two years ago, while dining outdoors on the patio of a popular restaurant in NYC, we were bombarded with bird droppings from starlings in shade trees overhead. Similar acts of deception are seen in katydids and other insects with green colors and patterns that mimic leaves of plants.Īh, but twigs and leaves are not nature’s only items of little or no interest to meat-eaters. Their clever ruse of resembling parts of plants enables otherwise tasty prey to be overlooked by the hungry eyes of visually astute predators like birds, lizards, and mammals. In previous episodes we met members of the phasmatid clan from around the globe, walking sticks from the hills in Maryland, jungles of Vietnam, forests of Australia, coastal plains of Florida, and rainforests of Malaysia that did their best to resemble branches, twigs, and leaves of plants. The art of deception has evolved many times in the insect kingdom.
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