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by Adam Fulford

As your butterfly garden begins to attract various types of butterflies, you’ll begin to spend more and more time watching them closely, studying them and involving yourself with these lovely creatures. You’ll soon notice the peculiar behavioral traits that these butterflies exhibit.

Feeding

Nectar the sweet honeydew like liquid that flowers produce and which are available inside the bulb of the flowers called ‘nectaries’ is the primary source of food for butterflies. It’s this same nectar that humming birds, bees and other insects and bugs feed on. High in sugar, this nectar provides energy for the butterfly in its flights.

A butterfly does not have a mouth to chew with. In its place however, it has a long antennae-like straw called a proboscis and it’s through this proboscis that a butterfly sucks out the nectar from the flower. Interestingly, a butterfly first tastes its food - the nectar - with its feet. It lands on the flower and tastes the nectar before it begins to drink.

Butterflies also feast on rotten fruits, plantain, animal dung, pollen and water.

Basking

We human beings are warm blooded. Our blood and body temperatures are self-regulated. Which means we can function effectively even in cold climates. But even then, we all need the sun to warm us and give us energy, as do all animals and birds.

Cold blooded animals and other creatures however, do not have the luxury of a self-regulated body temperature. Hence they, more than any of us, need the sun’s rays to warm up the body, the blood and the muscles and draw much-needed energy to function normally.

Like the butterfly. Being cold blooded the butterfly must depend on the sun’s rays to warm up the body and the muscles in their wings and draw energy needed for flight.

Butterflies are not tolerant to extremes in temperatures. When it’s just warm, not too hot, they fly. Ideally, they prefer temperatures between 70 and 90 degrees. When the temperatures soar above that the butterflies seek shelter in the shade. But, if the temperatures dip below 70 degrees, the butterflies seek a warm rock or wall where they can bask in the rays of the sun.

Basking means, they sit with their wings flattened out and face the sun. The flattened wings position is the most common basking position and normally employed by butterflies with dark areas on their wings or with dark, black bodies or by those butterflies whose wing bases are darker than the edges. And then, there are some butterflies that have light colored wing edges who use their wings to reflect the sun’s rays to its body.

Puddling

Besides nectar, butterflies need water, minerals, salts and nutrients. And how do they get the intake they need? They sit at the edges of small puddles, patches of wet mud and sand and obtain their requisite dose of these much-valued nutrients. This is called ‘puddling’.

These minerals, salts and nutrients are essential for successful mating and reproduction. Normally more male butterflies puddle than females, passing the nutrients through their sperm to the females who in turn use them for reproduction. Experts also claim that these nutrients also help in producing the sexual attractants - pheromones -that males use to attract females.

Patrolling and Perching

In order to mate, male butterflies seek out female butterflies. From a height these male butterflies patrol the areas likely to be populated by females who are either feeding or laying eggs. Since butterflies do not have a sharp vision, the male butterfly has to fly in closer to examine another butterfly that he perceives to be a female. And, if his hunch is right, the male begins to court the female.

There are some butterflies however, who use a different strategy. These males perch themselves on tall plants, trees or even on walls along the edges of streams where female butterflies are likely to frequent. Once they spot another butterfly, they move in closer to examine it and if it indeed is a female the courtship begins.

If in either of these two strategies it turns out that the other butterfly is another male, then the original butterfly will chase away the latter, thus safeguarding its territory.

Mating

Courtship and mating rituals differ from species to species. In general, the male butterfly flies above or behind the female releasing his sexual attractant chemical - pheromones. The male in this case is more animated and frisky, fluttering its wings a bit more than normal. The female however, is calm and steady in her flight path. If the female decides to mate with the male she’ll gently alight on a plant or on the ground. The male lands besides her and takes the ritual to the next level by touching the female’s antennae or even her feet. He moves closer alternating his wing movements to keep the female interested. Finally, they copulate by joining the tips of their abdomens. They might even take flight in the joined copulating position.

But there are times when the female avoids the advances of males. She makes her rejection known by physically avoiding contact with the male by positioning her abdomen in such a way or spreading her wings in such a manner as to make physical contact impossible. She may even release anti-aphrodisiacs to counter the pheromones the male releases. Finally, as a last act of rejection, the female might take flight, flying spirally upwards until the male gives up the chase.

Egg-laying

As we learned earlier, an adult female butterfly will only lay her eggs on specific plants which will provide food and nourishment for the just-hatched caterpillar. These are called host plants. Visual signs like shape of the leaf and color do help in the search but we know that butterflies do not have a good sense of sight. They must therefore depend on their other senses. One such identifier is the scent of the plant.

The female butterfly then does a peculiar thing. She’ll land on the leaf and drum on the surface of the leaf, thus scratching it. This releases scents which confirm her decision that it is after all the right plant on which to lay her eggs.