Growing With Science Blog

This weekend we were inspired by an absolutely gorgeous new picture book, A Butterfly Is Patient by Dianna Hutts Aston and illustrated by Sylvia Long. (See review at Wrapped In Foil.)

Aston and Long have collaborated on two other wonderful books, A Egg is Quiet and A Seed is Sleepy. If you are familiar with those books, you will know to expect extraordinary illustrations and accurate, age-appropriate information written in lyrical text. In this book all about butterflies, they have outdone even themselves. A Butterfly Is Patient is definitely inspiring!

Activities to learn more about butterflies:

1. Study Caterpillar and Butterfly Anatomy

Have you ever spent time actually studying the parts of a caterpillar or butterfly? I know, it may be hard to look past the bright colors and beauty, but studying how these animals go together helps you appreciate them in a different way.

Try to find a smooth caterpillar like this tobacco hornworm (some of the fuzzy or spiky ones have stinging hairs, so don’t pick up those.) Gently coax it onto a leaf or stem where you can observe it with a hand lens. See if you can find the following organs and structures.

In this side view of a moth caterpillar, we can see the thorax (the three segments right behind the head), and the abdomen quite clearly. The thorax is where we find the six true legs, which are the identifying characteristics of insects. What are those fleshy appendages on the abdomen, aren’t those legs? From a scientific perspective, those are not true legs, but are called prolegs. They are used for walking and clinging to leaves just like legs, but they lack the joints of a true leg.  As you will see, the adult will have only the true legs.

The small circles on the sides of the caterpillar are spiracles, the openings through the insect’s exoskeleton that allow it to take in air.

In this view, we can see the caterpillar’s head. At the bottom of the head are the mandibles, the pruning scissor-like jaws that it uses to cut food. Slightly above and to the side of the jaws are the ocelli, which are simple eye spots. The caterpillar probably doesn’t see much with those tiny spots, maybe only whether it is light or dark out. This photograph shows a better view of the jointed legs.

After the caterpillar transforms into a pupa and then a butterfly, we see different structures.

What a transformation!

Instead of tiny ocelli on its head, the butterfly has large compound eyes. The mouth has become a long tube for sucking nectar from flowers (some butterflies actually lack a mouth altogether). There were antennal buds on the head of the caterpillar, but now the butterfly has full blown antennae.

The true legs are long and delicate and the prolegs are gone. Attached to the thorax are the wings. If you read a book about how to identify butterflies, it will probably describe markings on the upper or forewings, or the lower hind wings. The raised structures in the wings, called wing veins, are also important for identification.

Can you find the mouthparts and the spiracles on this giant swallowtail butterfly?

Activity 2. Butterfly Life Cycle

Butterflies go through a complex series of changes during the life cycle, a process called complete metamorphosis.

Let’s explore the life cycle of the queen butterfly, and then make a poster.

The queen butterfly starts out life as an egg laid by the female butterfly on a milkweed plant.

A caterpillar emerges from the egg, and begins to feed on the plant.

When it has reached its full size, the caterpillar transforms into a chrysalis.

After a week or so, out comes the adult butterfly.

Use this information to prepare a butterfly life cycle poster, perhaps like this one from Enchanted Learning.

For more photographs, try these related posts:

• Butterfly eggs
• Butterfly larvae or caterpillars
• Chrysalises
• The Queen butterfly emerges

Activity 3. Raise a butterfly or moth

At some point in their childhood, most budding scientists raise a caterpillar to find out what it turns out to be.

• You might want to start with silkworms, which can be raised on an artificial diet or mulberry leaves.
• Learn the ins and outs of raising caterpillars.

Activity 4. Make a colorful coffee filter butterfly craft here at Growing With Science

Activity 5. Butterfly gardening

It is amazing that you can bring butterflies into your yard by planting a few special plants. You can then watch the life cycles in a more natural setting.

Some butterfly favorite plants are:

• milkweeds (monarchs, queens)
• lantana
• butterfly bush
• ageratum (attracts male queen butterflies)
• dill, fennel or parsley (swallowtails)
• hollyhocks (painted lady)
• passion flower (fritillaries)

For more ideas, see our  butterfly gardening post.

Monarch Watch has lesson plans, a ton of information about monarchs, and ideas for more activities.

And don’t forget to read some books about butterflies, including A Butterfly Is Patient by Dianna Hutts Aston

A Seed Is Sleepy

An Egg Is Quiet

This book was provided for review purposes.

Week before last we must have had a spike in humidity levels because all the Texas sage bushes in the neighborhood started flowering. They were so pretty, I thought I’d add a plant of the week this week.

Also called purple sage, or Texas silverleaf, the scientific name of this Texas native plant is Leucophyllum frutescens.  They appear gray because their leaves are densely covered with silvery hairs. The flowers may be white, pink, lavender, purple, or blue, depending on the variety. Texas sages characteristically bloom after a rain, or at least a local rise in humidity levels. This interesting trait gives them the common name of “Texas barometer bush.”

Check out the white and contrasting spots in the throat of the flower.

Texas sage and other related species are widely planted as water-conserving ornamentals in the southwestern United States. They can get quite big if watered occasionally and allowed to spread to their natural form.

It isn’t uncommon to see them pruned as well. Pruning does cut down on the number of flowers, which are at the stem tips.

If you are interested in butterfly gardening, you might want to consider planting some of these shrubs. It turns out that they are also hosts for caterpillars, (although I’ve never seen any on ours.) Further south in Arizona there have been reports of caterpillars of the Theona Checkerspot (Chlosyne theona) using the sage as a food plant.

Caterpillars of an attention-grabbing moth called the Calleta silkmoth (Eupackardia calleta) also feed on Texas sage.  If you live in an area where they are found, you should look for them. Check the map at the Butterflies and Moths of North America website linked to the name of the moth.

What would you do if you found one of these bright red creatures in your yard?

You should cheer because they are the caterpillars of the beautiful pipevine swallowtail butterfly (Battus philenor). We found these at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Arizona.

The bright red caterpillars will turn into one of these butterflies.

Check out the gorgeous metallic blue on the lower parts.

I should admit right away that it is extremely difficult to get a good photograph of a pipevine swallowtail butterfly. The butterflies have a behavior known as “flutter feeding” which mean their wings are in almost constant motion. This one was on the floor in a public place, so I suspect it may have been stepped on. Too bad.

The caterpillars of the pipevine swallowtail feed on plants called pipevines (Aristolochia species), hence the name. The plant is a small, drab vine and is hard to spot. I am grateful to my friend who pointed out this one. Edit: My friend says this plant is Aristolochia watsonii.

The plants contain a nasty chemical called aristolochoic acid that deters most animals from feeding on them. The ability to feed on pipevine plants is a unique feature of these caterpillars.

The caterpillars change size and color as they grow. You may also see pipevine caterpillars that look like the ones above, but are black instead of red.  The larger, older caterpillars are often found resting on plants besides their hosts (the ones they feed on). The caterpillar above is not on a pipevine.

On the same day we also saw this little butterfly.

This is the adult of the bordered patch (Chlosyne lacinia). In some books it might be called a lacinia checkerspot. This little guy is really quite battered.

The bordered patch species is also quite variable in color, like the caterpillars of the pipevine. The North American Butterfly Association has a page of photographs of members of this species. You will see this dark color version towards the bottom. How did anyone ever figure out they were all the same species?

I was not surprised to learn the bordered patch caterpillars feed on sunflowers (as well as ragweed). Here is the garden that was only a few feet away from where I found the butterfly. If you want to raise butterflies, just plant a few of these.