How to attract butterflies
Butterflies are some of the most delicate and beautiful insects that come to visit our gardens. It is a great shame we are seeing fewer and fewer of them for they are important pollinators of many flowering plants and, of course, play a vital role in the food chain.
The two main reasons for the decline in butterfly visitations are indiscriminate pesticide use and loss of plant diversity in home gardens. It is the caterpillars of introduced moths that are the enemies of our gardens, not our native butterfly caterpillars. How do you know which caterpillar belongs to which butterfly? You get some books on butterflies.
Butterflies need loads of carbohydrate in the form of nectar that is provided by flowers.
Flowering plants go to extraordinary measures to attract the colour-sensitive eyes of butterflies and some are specific to one type of butterfly. Our little winged friends prefer flowers that they can land and sit on for a while without expending too much energy, something like a landing platform that they can suck nectar from for a few minutes.
Many of the daisy flowers are good attractants; both native and exotic, milkweeds, verbena, lantana, buddleia, clover, and violas are favourites.
Butterflies such as the lesser wanderer feed on native milkweeds and marsdenia. The meadow argus feeds on goodenias and scaevolas but also on snapdragon and verbena. The brightly coloured lemon migrant prefers just cassia species. The beautiful metallic imperial butterflies feed exclusively on mistletoe. Diversity is the name of the game.
