Chicago Academy of Sciences Blog
Articles tagged Butterflies
September 1, 2021
Black swallowtail butterflies (Papilio polyxenes) are an extraordinarily beautiful and common butterfly that, with the right plants, many people can observe in their own backyards. We receive tons of questions about them this time of year as the weather starts to cool so we sat down with Allen, our associate curator of entomology, to answer some of them.
May 31, 2021
One of the most common questions we get at the Nature Museum is, “What do butterflies eat?” In order to better understand what they eat, we have to understand how they eat! Butterflies have a long tongue, called a proboscis, which they can curl and uncurl to drink through like a straw. Because of their straw-like mouthparts, butterflies are mainly restricted to a liquid diet. Butterflies use their proboscis to drink sweet nectar from flowers. Nectar sometimes resides deep within a flower and the proboscis allows the butterfly to reach this sugary treat. We fill the Judy Istock Butterfly Haven with an abundance of flowering plants that produce ample nectar for the butterflies, including: coral vine, firespike, jungle cucumber, Ixora, and lantana.We also provide sponge pads soaked with simulated nectar for the butterflies. The simulated nectar is made by mixing honey and water.
May 29, 2020
Host plants are big part of the insect world, so today we’re talking all about them! Keep reading to learn which species relies on which host plant, which caterpillars you might find in your garden, and more!
January 19, 2019
How Can I Help Butterflies and Bees?
There are a few simple things that anyone can do if they have garden or even a porch at home. If you want to go the extra mile, you can look into further resources and get your garden certified as a monarch waystation (like the Nature Museum!). You can also help monitor pollinators by contributing to citizen science programs like BeeSpotter or iNaturalist.
May 17, 2017
How Many Legs Does a Caterpillar Have?
Looking at the picture above, you might conclude that caterpillars have 8 pairs of legs- three pairs in the front, four in the middle and one at the back (if you’re a bit confused, the head of the caterpillar is on the left in this photo). But wait, aren’t caterpillars insects? Don’t insects have 6 legs, not 16? Like all insects, this caterpillar has only 6 legs. Note the different shape of the three pairs of legs near the caterpillar’s head. They’re the true legs. The remaining structures are not legs at all. They’re protrusions from the caterpillar’s abdomen called prolegs. Much like true legs, they help the caterpillar grip onto surfaces like twigs, and aid in locomotion.
January 6, 2017
Where Do Butterflies Go At Night?
They sleep. Simple, right? Butterflies are active during the day, so at night they find a hiding place and go to sleep. In the same way, moths are active at night and during the day moths hide and rest. Animals that sleep during the night, like most butterflies, are diurnal. Animals that sleep during the day, like most moths, are nocturnal. Never seen a sleeping butterfly? A sleeping butterfly would make an easy meal for a nocturnal predator! If you’re dedicated to finding one, check under leaves, in between rocks, or even between blades of grass.[1] Or maybe, because most butterflies only live for a month or two, you should just leave them be: they only get a few dozen sleeps!
July 7, 2016
6 Common Butterflies You’ll See In Chicago Parks and Gardens
If you’ve wandered through our Nature Trails or the Woody Wickham Butterfly Garden lately, you’ve probably seen a variety of pollinators and other insects. In addition to the bees that call our rooftop beehives home, you’ve probably seen a number of butterflies fluttering around. If you have your own pollinator garden, you’ve probably seen some of them there, too. But what are they? Here are six common species of butterflies you’re likely to find around the Nature Museum and in your neck of the woods:
June 27, 2013
The Return of Swamp Metalmarks
After the very challenging drought year of 2012, the Butterfly Conservation Lab is up and running. Recently I traveled to far southern Indiana to continue our ongoing work with the Swamp Metalmark.
February 22, 2013
Where Do Butterflies Go in the Winter?
Even though it’s been a pretty mild winter, we have had some snow and cold weather. It’s been months since I’ve seen a butterfly outside – yet I’m quite confident that as the weather warms next spring, there will again be butterflies here in northeastern Illinois. So where are the butterflies now? Did they migrate off someplace else? Are they hibernating? As it turns out, the answer varies from species to species. Some butterflies do spend the winter elsewhere. The most familiar example is the Monarch, which spends the winters in the highlands of Michoacán in Mexico. It’s the only local species that makes an annual round-trip migration.