By: Hettie Basil Lighttower

Glad you all loved the informational writing about butterflies last week and are wanting to hear more! I definitely have more to share. Let’s get into some details of the secret lives of butterflies and caterpillars.
Most butterflies lay their eggs singly and flit from plant to plant or leaf to leaf to place an egg. Placing an egg is called ovipositing. A female butterfly oviposits her eggs. There are a few butterflies that oviposit several eggs in the same place.
There is a butterfly called the Question Mark. It gets its name by the silver marking on the underside of the wing that looks just like a “?”. The method she lays her eggs in is in a stack! Yep! One on top of the other! Crazy right? Her eggs are either put in a stacked tower straight up on top of leaves of elm trees, nettles or hackberry trees OR she lays them in a stalactite on the underside of the leaf. But just for fun or perhaps because of disruption….. occasionally she lays them singly! Hmmmm maybe that is the real reason they are named Question Mark…. Because you never know how you find her eggs!
Another wonderful butterfly called the Mourning Cloak oviposits her eggs in the most unusual fashion, but always consistent unlike the QM. This gal takes her time to oviposit completely around the smaller most tender branches of the elm tree. She will always use the willow or hackberry tree. She methodically goes around and around the branch with little star-like eggs which cover full circle about two or three inches in length of the branches’ surface. It makes like an egg blanket on the branch in a beautiful design with all the little stars. The egg clutch resembles a fungus on the branch to the untrained eye. It is a great camouflage for her potentials. These egg groups are called a clutch. She will make 1-3 clutches on a tree.
When those little buggers hatch out there may be 100 to 200 of them in a clutch. They stay together side by side like an army and protect each other. These caterpillars do this until they are nearly full grown. Most caterpillars, when they molt their skins for progressive growth will eat their skins after the new skin is fully dry in an hour. However, these Mourning Cloak caterpillars do not eat the old exoskeleton. They leave them as is and move on to another branch all together as the group. And when I say leave them as is, I mean side by side they molted and the emptied skins remain there with head capsules intact to resemble a group of caterpillars! It fools predators into thinking they have been successful in finding the mother load of din din! But to their surprise, they are only fake empty caterpillars of decoy. It is a quite brilliant design!
Another fascinating thing these caterpillars do as a group is when one senses danger it rears up to stand on its hind legs and the whole lot of them do the same! Together they look like a huge machine ready to do some damage all standing tall and seemingly looking quite vicious. A bird gets confused and doesn’t know which one to attack as they are all waving back and forth it creates the feel of an obvious risk. They are left alone and saved. Staying together like this is called gregarious. By the time they are all larger and ready to feed alone they have developed a second security system of 1/3 inch tall piercing spikes all over their body. These spikes serve as their new protection while out on their own. Although most times two to four of them decide to stay together in this stage.
Most people think that butterflies just fly aimlessly around with no purpose. They are viewed as whimsical and oblivious to life. All these perceptions are completely incorrect! Butterflies have nothing but purpose and are fully aware of their world. You see their only protection is to fly. So they deliberately fly in a sporadic pattern to appear very difficult to catch. A wasp or a bird will hone in on them at any given moment, so performing their best zig-zag discourages these predators. Predators have to be able to predict the prey’s next move, you see? So the butterfly has this trick down pat. They are unpredictable and seemingly just non-sense in the air. This would mean their tactics have worked on you also. The importance of what they are doing is dismissed.
Other than avoiding death, what are they doing? Females are scanning the surroundings for nectar and also appropriate host plants for ovipositing. Their antennae are very sensitive to molecules in the air! They pick up molecules of plants. When their receptors detect the correct plant the female will land on it, scratch it up a bit with its front feet just to make sure it was perceived correctly (kinda like a scratch and sniff deal…. probably where we got that idea) then proceed to lay her eggs.
Males in their flight pattern are seeking nectar also, but most often seeking out females while avoiding predators. But they will patrol and become territorial of other males in what they have claimed to be their territory. Some species of butterflies are more territorial than others. The Hackberry Emperor male for instance doesn’t want any other butterflies or insects around its hackberry tree haven. I have witnessed them shewing off butterflies four times their size. And those other butterflies actually “listen” to them and leave. When all the 17-year locusts were around I videoed, these little butterflies chasing off and intimidating the enormous intruders.
So, yes, butterflies are fascinating and have great purpose and intention. Their little lives have big meaning. They are peaceful and beautiful. They bring us joy when they come around us or land on us.
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