Why Should We Care About Butterflies?

On Saturday, August 27, 2022, Stanley’s Greenhouse hosted its sixth butterfly festival, which was our attempt to place the spotlight on butterflies, those other-worldly-looking flying insects that float through our world in the summer and fall.

To be honest, fewer of them are floating through our world than ever before due to the loss of their habitat, overuse of pesticides, the loss of host plants that provide nurseries for their young, and the change in our global and local climate. Perhaps one of the main reasons butterflies are in jeopardy is that we gave taken them—and a large array of other wildlife species—for granted.

Each stage of the butterfly’s metamorphosis is fascinating and well worth studying to learn about the magical intricacies of the natural world. Butterflies are studied by schoolchildren because their teachers know they have a fascinating four-stage life cycle which includes: (1) the egg, (2) the larval stage or caterpillar stage when they crawl around their host plant and do nothing but eat, (3) the pupa, called a chrysalis, is the stage when they are wrapped in a protective cocoon—followed by the penultimate stage, (4) the adult butterfly that flies, collects nectar, reproduces, and lays eggs. During the summer breeding season, monarch butterflies typically live from 2 to 5 weeks, the time in which they mate and lay the eggs that become the next generation.

However, since butterflies have four distinct stages, they are susceptible to harm in many ways that other insects are not. In their dormant cocoon stage, they are completely defenseless, and as caterpillars they move very slowly and rely on very particular host plants for their food. For instance, monarch butterflies rely on milkweed exclusively as a host plant for their first three life cycles—and gain nectar from the plant as an adult. Unfortunately milkweed has been eradicated in many of its native locations over the past few decades which has led, this year (2022), to the addition of monarch butterflies to the international endangered species list.

Those of us who have been observing butterflies have noticed a marked reduction in the number of monarchs and other butterflies over the past decade. However, the lifeway of monarch butterflies places them in further jeopardy due to the vast distances they must fly in order to complete their migration. As our friends at the local Beardsley Community Farm explain in their calendar entry for August 2022:

A monarch begins its year in Central Mexico, their winter destination, before migrating north. Along the way, they are searching for plants in the milkweed family to begin laying eggs for future generations of monarchs. Milkweed plants are the only places monarchs will lay their eggs—the monarchs rely on the flower’s nectar and their caterpillars eat the leaves. Each subsequent generation matures and flies further north to repeat the same processes their parents began. As the days get shorter and the temperatures get lower, the fourth and last generation of monarchs enters a delayed stage of maturity. The monarchs in this generation that survive their journey back to Central Mexico will begin next year’s first generation of monarchs, flying back north in pursuit of milkweed.

Weighing less than a paperclip, these unique butterflies will fly between 2,000 to 3,000 miles to their overwintering location in Mexico.

Why should we care that butterflies and other pollinators (especially bees) are in danger? Bottom line: they pollinate a large percentage of our food. As the U.S. Forest Service explains:

Without pollinators, the human race and all of earth's terrestrial ecosystems would not survive. Of the 1,400 crop plants grown around the world, i.e., those that produce all of our food and plant-based industrial products, almost 80% require pollination by animals.

So we value butterflies and other pollinators because they help make life on Earth possible. And because they inspire us with their beauty.

We can argue whether beauty is an important quality in our world where the value of a particular item is too often based solely on its dollars and cents. But the intrinsic value of some elements of the natural world are important, in and of themselves. Perhaps the definition of intrinsic by the Oxford English Dictionary and The Law Insider can help explain the hard-to-describe value of the many things in life that we cannot place a price tag on:

[Oxford English Dictionary] Intrinsic: belonging naturally; essential.

[The Law Insider] Intrinsic Quality means scenic, historic, recreational, cultural, archeological, or natural features that are considered representative, unique, irreplaceable, or distinctly characteristic of an area.

Yes, some things are simply priceless and irreplaceable. Such as the people we love, the place we call home—and butterflies.

What can you do to make a difference on behalf of butterflies, especially monarch butterflies? Here are a few ideas from the U.S. Forest Service:

Learn - take time to educate yourself through online sources, educational programs, local organizations, and events (such as our annual butterfly festival).

Garden - every backyard can become an oasis for monarchs and other pollinators, even in cities. Choose native plants, such as milkweed, that are beneficial to monarchs and other butterflies.

Register Your Butterfly Garden - have a butterfly garden? Assist in the conservation of the monarch butterfly in North America by registering your garden as a Monarch Waystation at: https://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/certify.html

Work With Others - find out what is going in our area, and join programs that support butterflies and plant conservation.

Donate - your time and talents (and butterfly photos!) to schools, community groups, garden clubs, or conservation groups.

Together we can work to make our corner of the world a better place for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren.