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Attracting Wildlife to Your Back
Yard
A Guide to Increasing Wildlife Diversity
and Aesthetic Value Around Your Home
Appendix B. Additional Butterfly
Information
Dr. Ron Royer of Minot is a butterfly expert.
He has developed an internet site entitled,
Atlas of North Dakota Butterflies. This site includes
pictures and can be found at:
www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/dist/lepid/bflynd/bflynd.htm. Ron also
has published Butterflies of North Dakota which includes colored plates, range maps and general
biological information.
The following is a very brief
overview of butterflies taken from a conversation with Dr. Royer:
As a general rule, most environmentally sensitive
and conservation-important butterflies prefer white and
pink/purple/red blooms to yellow ones (e.g., Cirsium,
Monarda, and Echinacea are much better than
Ratibida and Rudbeckia). My usual advice to butterfly
gardening aspirants is to prefer native to exotic or highly bred
garden ornamentals (despite the most prolific and more showy nature
of the latter), because the adult appearance of many native
butterfly species is phenologically coordinated with the rather
specific nectar (i.e., "fuel") sources. A good example is the June
emergence of the conservation-sensitive grass skippers (Hesperia
dacotae and ottoe, Polites origenes, and Atrytone arogos)
in time with the seasonal bloom of such species as Echinaces,
Lilium, and Zygadenus.
Among traditional garden
ornamentals, composites (e.g., marigolds and zinnias) are by far the
most productive butterfly attractors in terms of overall species
richness of butterfly visitations.
Then there is the issue of larval foodplants
(actually far more important to the conservation of native butterfly
species). Unfortunately, most everything butterflies prefer,
gardeners do not (e.g., nettles, thistles, etc.).
Skippers - unmowed native
prairie grasses and native legumes (Locoweed,etc.).
Swallowtails
- umbellifers (carrots, dill, parsley)
Whites and sulphurs - crucifers and legumes
(i.e., food crops)
Lycaenids - docks, pinkweed,
wild buckwheats, native legumes (e.g., Thermopsis, Oxytropis,
Lupinus, etc.)
Brushfoots - "weeds" generally,
including representatives of just about every plant family,
including nettles, various wild asters, and so forth.
Satyrs and
Nymphs - native grasses and sedges
Unless one is willing to sustain a one-acre
native prairie or native woodlot in the yard (including most of the
plant species that the usual lawn-grower 2-4-Ds to death), flowers
are likely to attract mostly garden pests (cabbage butterflies,
alfalfa butterflies, and so forth). The same unfortunately, is true
to CRP land. This, of course, is why butterflies are such good
indicators of undisturbed native habitats - they can tell far better
than we when a place has been "disturbed". Typically they do so by
being absent.
The best butterfly habitat
in cities is found in long-vacant lots that most citizens describe
as "eyesores". Why? Precisely because they are not "managed," but
rather "neglected" for long enough that "weeds" get firmly
established.
Previous Section -- Appendix A. Trees, Shrubs, Vines and Ground
Cover Recommendations
Return to Contents Next Section --
Appendix C. Native Plant Seed Sources and
Information
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The Registry of
Nature Habitats
PO Box 321
Meridale, NY 13806
Copyright 1999 -
All Rights Reserved
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