Image via Wikipedia

By Piedro Molinero

When flirting with butterfly gardening, it is good to know a little bit more about these small and beautiful animals you want to attract to your backyard. To know which flowers and plants to grow for feeding butterflies, their eating habits are from particular interest for starting a butterfly garden.

As you probably already know, butterflies go through different life cycles. All butterflies life cycle starts as an egg, then it turns into a caterpillar, afterwards it becomes a pupa and in the end it comes out as a butterfly.

Most of its eating during all these butterfly stages, this creature does when it is a caterpillar. For some types of butterflies, this caterpillar stage is the only time in its whole life when it will ever eat.

The caterpillar eats and grows until it bursts and drops its skin for a new one. This process can be repeated many, many times and in a couple of weeks the caterpillar can be a lot larger than it emerged.

But also butterflies have the equipment to eat. They have a head, they have a thorax, and they have a venter as well. Just rather than the typical insect mouth, those butterflies which do eat, have a tube. When not in use this tube rolled up like a coil spring but can be pushed deep into the glands of flowers to absorb their nectar.

The best way to find out which kind of nectar and food plants to offer your butterflies is to take a hike around and explore your location. Discover which species of butterflies live in your area.

For best results have a butterfly identification book handy and make some notes about what these specific species of butterflies use for nectar and food plants. Although this might take some time and effort, you will appreciate the result. Once you discovered the local butterfly species and prepared a list of flowers and plants they prefer, you are ready to start designing your butterfly garden.

About the Author Piedro Molinero is a hobby gardener sharing his experience at DIY Gardening Tips.

(ArticlesBase SC #625942)   Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – What Do Butterflies Eat?

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Monarch butterfly caterpillar. Image by Martin LaBar via Flickr

Butterflies are very colorful and intricate creatures that flutter freely among the beautiful flowers and shrubs on warm days. There are many varieties of butterflies, but the most colorful and popular is the Monarch.

The butterfly has one of the most unusual life cycles of any creature on Earth. Each one goes through a variety of physical changes, starting out as only an egg and ending as a beautiful butterfly.

A butterfly may lay a single egg or several. It depends on the type of butterfly and the nutrition she has had prior to conceiving. The better health a butterfly is in, the more eggs she will lay at a time. The eggs are laid on various food plants, in areas that are well hidden to protect them from the elements and predators.

Most eggs will hatch in approximately ten days, and a small green caterpillar will emerge from each one. The eggshell serves as the very first meal for these young caterpillars.

It is amazing just how much food a small caterpillar can consume every day. The jaws of a caterpillar are very powerful, and they are not picky when it comes to nibbling on a variety of foods and plants.

Most anything that is edible will be consumed by a caterpillar. As it grows larger, the caterpillar sheds its skin. This will happen several times in its life as a caterpillar.

After a caterpillar has become fully grow, it will enter the next stage of life called pupation. During this time the caterpillar spins a silk pad and then hangs upside down from it. A hormone in the caterpillar begins to make physical changes take place.

The caterpillar will remain in the chrysalis for approximately two weeks. What emerges is a beautiful butterfly with wings ready to continue life in this new form.

Regardless of the species of butterfly, each one lives a very remarkable life, featuring dramatic changes that very few creatures go through. The metamorphosis of a butterfly from a caterpillar that hatched from an egg is an unbelievable spectacle to observe. It does make you stop and watch in awe as this new life form emerges.

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