Butterflies

Butterfly Checklist:

• Food – Drink nectar from flowers. Red clover, daisies, bee balm and coneflowers are good for many butterflies.
• Shelter/cover – Places to lay eggs. The butterflies want to put their eggs on the food plant for the caterpillars. Monarchs like milkweed. Swallowtails like willows and lilacs.
• Water – Mud puddles, birdbaths, shallow dishes or rocks with small indents. Lady’s-mantle leaves let the dew and rain bead up on them.

Caterpillar Checklist:
(If you want the butterflies to come, you can’t forget the caterpillars!)

• Food – Eat leaves from trees, shrubs and perennials. Monarch caterpillars like milkweed.
• Shelter/cover – Places to make cocoons. Plant wild grasses for places to winter over.
• Water – Rain and dew on the plants is enough most of the time, during dry spells you can turn on the sprinkler.

Butterflies & Caterpillars	Host and Food Plants
Eastern tiger swallowtail	Wild Cherry and tulip tree
Monarch	Milkweed and dogbane
White admiral	Birch, willow, and poplar trees
Viceroy	Willow and poplar trees
Great spangled fritillary	Larva feeds at night on violets. Butterflies like milkweed and thistle
Common blue	Larva feeds on dogwood flowers
Painted lady	Larva feeds on thistle. Butterflies frequent thistles
Tawny emperor	Hackberry tree
Hackberry butterfly	Hackberry tree
Clouded sulphurs	Larva eats red clover. The buttery yellow color of the European sulphurs probably suggested the name butterfly.

«For the Birds

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