A Butterfly Garden for Milkweed

[milkweed]

Actually I don't have any problems with the tomato hornworms, the wasp take care of them for me.

[NEWisc]

After a little checking, the tomato hornworms could be either one of two species:
Five-spotted hawkmoth (Manduca quinquemaculata)
Species Detail | Butterflies and Moths of North America
Additional Images | Butterflies and Moths of North America
Carolina sphinx (Manduca sexta)
Species Detail | Butterflies and Moths of North America
Additional Images | Butterflies and Moths of North America

From the distribution maps, it could be either one. Should we take them off the list?

[NEWisc]

Whoops, we cross-posted. I'm on dialup, so sometimes I get behind on the posts.

Actually I don't have any problems with the tomato hornworms, the wasp take care of them for me.

OK, we'll leave them on for the list for now.

[milkweed]

I see from your links that their native hosts are plants in the nightshade family. I'll confess, I have a bias against nightshade, childhood trauma.

Don't even touch those! There poisonous!
Mom yelling that across the yard scared the daylights out of me.
I don't even like shooting stars because their flowers look similar to nightshade. I think my son is old enough to level them alone but...

[NEWisc]

OK, they're off.

[NEWisc]

Originally Posted by milkweed

Wow what a long list!

Right, on to the next step.

We've got about 151 butterflies and 37 moths in the original list. We'll go to the list on the Butterflies and Moths website:
Map Search | Butterflies and Moths of North America
We'll just click on the name and take a look at the information there, and we'll use that information to remove unlikely candidates from the original list. A good butterfly book that includes your area would also be helpful for this process.

Documented location maps - If the butterfly hasn't been documented anywhere near the location of the planned butterfly garden, there's little chance of success in attracting that butterfly. Our location is central Indiana, so that makes it nice and easy. If it's only been reported in the northern third of the state for example, that makes it a long shot and we'll remove it from the list.

Habitat requirements - If the habitat needed for the butterfly is not available in the nearby area, we'll eliminate it from the list. The 'nearby area' is difficult to define since the normal flight range varies from species to species. But for our purposes we'll just use a mile or so. We'll also be looking at habitat as a major feature. For example, if the habitat for a butterfly is a bog, and there is no bog within a mile we'll remove the butterfly from the list.

Other considerations - Maybe all of the host plants for a butterfly require wetland type growing conditions and you're not going to be able to provide that. Or maybe the host plants are limited to poisonous plants or plants like stinging nettles and that's not workable for your situation. These kinds of considerations will also eliminate some species from the list.

Now this may seem like a laborious task (and it is), but I would encourage anyone to give it a try. When I did it for my area, I came across a lot of butterflies that I didn't know existed in my area. I planted the host plants, and viola, there they were! You'll also learn a lot about the butterflies in your area. Knowing about the brood cycles, for example, can tell you when to expect to see that species in your garden.

It can also be a fun family project. Have your kids go through the list with you and let them help pick out the butterflies for your garden.

Now this is going to take some time, so please bear with us.

[TimSaupe]

What a fantastic idea - wish I would have found the board earlier and thought to do this I'm right next door to milkweed though (in OH) so I'll be watching this . . .

[milkweed]

Skippers (Hesperiidae)
Spread-wing Skippers (Pyrginae)
Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus) HONEY LOCUST
Hoary Edge (Achalarus lyciades)
Long-tailed Skipper (Urbanus proteus)
Northern Cloudywing (Thorybes pylades)
Southern Cloudywing (Thorybes bathyllus)
Wild Indigo Duskywing (Erynnis baptisiae)
Columbine Duskywing (Erynnis lucilius)
Common Checkered-Skipper (Pyrgus communis)
Common Sootywing (Pholisora catullus)

Parnassians and Swallowtails (Papilionidae)
Swallowtails (Papilioninae)
Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor)
Zebra Swallowtail (Eurytides marcellus)
Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes)
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)
Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus)
Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes)

Whites and Sulphurs (Pieridae)
Whites (Pierinae)
Checkered White (Pontia protodice)
Cabbage White (Pieris rapae) are they native?
West Virginia White (Pieris virginiensis)
Falcate Orangetip (Anthocharis midea)

These are some possibilities. Whether the host plants are regional will disqualify others.
OK I did skip the grass skippers. I'm only human. I couldn't wait to get down to the "pretty" butterflies. Sorry.

Also if a butterflies requires a prairie setting, would a 35x6 ft flower bed satisfy their needs?

Regarding the 1 mile radius. There are vacant lots (one time fields) with field weeds and few natives; retention ponds and a good sized drainage ditch in a natural condition IE willows, dogwoods etc, some wooded ares and of coarse fields.

Will back to work.

[milkweed]

Sulphurs (Coliadinae)
Clouded Sulphur (Colias philodice)
Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme)
Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae)
Orange-barred Sulphur (Phoebis philea)
Little Yellow (Pyrisitia lisa)
Sleepy Orange (Abaeis nicippe)
Dainty Sulphur (Nathalis iole)
Gossamer-wing Butterflies (Lycaenidae)

Harvesters (Miletinae)
Harvester (Feniseca tarquinius) APHID EATER

Coppers (Lycaeninae)
American Copper (Lycaena phlaeas)
Bronze Copper (Lycaena hyllus)

Hairstreaks (Theclinae)
Juniper Hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus) HAVE RED CEDARS
Henry's Elfin (Callophrys henrici) HAVE HOLLIES & REDBUDS
Striped Hairstreak (Satyrium liparops) HAVE ROSES
Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus)

Hairstreaks have trees and shrubs for host. For example, there are oaks in the neighborhood but I'm not going to plant any so I've removed those butterflies from the list. But they are more than welcome to the flowers.

Blues (Polyommatinae)
Eastern Tailed-Blue (Cupido comyntas)
Spring Azure (Celastrina "ladon") HOST FLORIDA DOGWOOD, COULD RED OSIER SERVE?
Summer Azure (Celastrina neglecta) DOGWOOD

Milkweed Butterflies (Danainae)
Monarch (Danaus plexippus)
Queen (Danaus gilippus)

Longwings (Heliconiinae)
Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae)
Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia)
Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele)
Regal Fritillary (Speyeria idalia)
Atlantis Fritillary (Speyeria atlantis)

Admirals and Relatives (Limenitidinae)
Red-spotted Purple or White Admiral (Limenitis arthemis) HAVE HAWTHORNS
'Astyanax' Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax)

Leafwings (Charaxinae)
Goatweed Leafwing (Anaea andria)
Wild Silk Moths (Saturniidae)
Io moth (Automeris io) REDBUD

Giant Silkworm Moths (Saturniinae)
Polyphemus moth (Antheraea polyphemus) MAPLE
Cecropia silkmoth (Hyalophora cecropia) CRABAPPLE & DOGWOODS

[milkweed]

True Brushfoots (Nymphalinae)
Gorgone Checkerspot (Chlosyne gorgone)
Silvery Checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis)
Harris' Checkerspot (Chlosyne harrisii)
Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos)
Tawny Crescent (Phyciodes batesii)
Baltimore (Euphydryas phaeton)
Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia)
Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)
American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis)

Satyrs and Wood-Nymphs (Satyrinae)
Northern Pearly Eye (Enodia anthedon)
Eyed Brown (Satyrodes eurydice)
Little Wood Satyr (Megisto cymela)
Common Wood Nymph (Cercyonis pegala)

Royal Moths (Citheroniinae)
Rosy maple moth (Dryocampa rubicunda) RED MAPLE
Imperial moth (Eacles imperialis) RED MAPLES
Bicolored honey locust moth (Sphingicampa bicolor) HONEY LOCUST

Sphinx Moths, Hawkmoths (Sphingidae)
Sphinginae (Sphinginae)
Waved sphinx (Ceratomia undulosa) HAWTHORN
Hermit sphinx (Sphinx eremitus)