Natural Notes: Urban Butterflies of Taylor Street Farms

The next time you are digging in your garden plot on a hot summer day, be on the lookout for our colorful and winged insect friends, the butterflies.  While the idea of bugs in the garden might detract the squeamish, butterflies are more often than not a welcome visitor in urban gardens - and in fact many gardeners will try to attract plants they find at home and garden centers that claim to be a "magnet" for butterflies.  Indeed, common nursery stock plants like Butterfly Bush (Buddleia davidii) do attract many species of butterflies, giving the false impression that planting ornamental garden flowers will increase the amount of butterflies.  It's deceiving because there is a difference between attracting butterflies and supporting the life stages of butterflies.  Most garden plants that people plant provide a source of nectar for them to feed on, but that's it.  They do not provide the necessary elements to support their growth and development, which for butterflies takes place over four main stages (see figure 1).

Figure 1:  Typical life cycle of most species of butterflies

First, a butterfly lays it's eggs.  But not just anywhere,  Many species of butterflies will only lay their eggs only on certain types of plants.  For example, the monarch butterfly (discussed below) will only lay eggs on Milkweed (Ascplepias spp.) and nothing else.  It is believed that butterflies have evolved in close association with a host plant, and that certain plants offer necessary nourishment required for a butterfly's development and growth.  For example, the monarch butterfly needs milkweed because milkweed offers the basic nutrients and energy needed for caterpillars to grow.

The caterpillars grow as they eat leaves and stems from their host plant.  Each stage in the growth of a caterpillar is known as an instar.  The caterpillar will shed its skin between each instar, not unlike that of a snake.  After the last instar (there are usually about 5 of them, depending on the species of butterfly), something rather unusual happens.  The caterpillar finds a place under a leaf and begins to pupate to form into a chrysalis.  During this stage, the entire body structure of the insect is altered, leading to the final stage as....you guessed it!  A butterfly!

So what kinds of butterflies might you see in an urban community garden like the Taylor Street Farms in the University Village neighborhood of Chicago?  There are several species of hardy butterflies that have adapted to urban environments in our region.  Here are just a few of them:

Monarch Butterfly (Danus plexippus).

Figure 2:  A female monarch butterfly.  Photo credits:  Kenneth Dwain Harrelson

The monarch butterfly is one of the largest and most distinguishable urban butterflies.   Its host plants are any species of Milkweed, although in urban areas it is most often the weedy and aggressive Common Milkweed (A. syriaca).  Monarch butterflies are a migratory butterfly, and in the autumn they will begin a vast migration to the mountains of Mexico!  Monarch butterflies would not survive without milkweed, even if a gardener plants tons of other flower species, because these animals rely on various chemical substances within the tissues of milkweed in order to build up toxins that make the caterpillars and butterflies poisons to predators such as birds!  Monarchs and their relationship with Milkweed, as well as their long and unusual migration, is a fascinating subject, and is worthy of a blog post of its own (coming soon!).

Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)

Figure 3.  Photo credits:  Didier Descouens

The host plant for this small but showy butterfly is anything in the Nettle family, and nettles are common in shady, overgrown areas with a little bit of moisture.  Red admirals are extremely common during the summer in the University Village neighborhood, and will pass through the community garden frequently.  If you want to attract this butterfly to your yard at your house or apartment complex, you'll have to plant our native Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica), which has small hairs known as trichomes that, when injected into your skin, are  quite painful for several minutes.  Ouch!  But this is this is the plant that supports the life stages of this remarkable and hardy butterfly!


Silver-spotted skipper (Epargyreus clarus)

Figure 4.  Photo credits:  John Brunelle

Skippers are a more compact group of butterflies, and the most commonly encountered species in urban lots like the Taylor Street Farms is the the Silver-spotted Skipper, which has orange-brown with small and conspicuous silver patches on its under wings.  The host plant for this small butterfly is anything in the pea family - but don't worry.  They seldom are a pest on garden peas and prefer native wildflowers in the pea family. 



Clouded sulphur (Colias philodice)

Figure 5.  Photo credits:  Megan McCarty

Much like the Silver-spotted Skipper, the host plants for this small and "cloudy" yellow butterfly include a variety of plants in the pea family.   Again, like the skipper this butterfly will not pose a threat to your peas but instead prefers weedy pea species such as Crown Vetch (Securigera varia) among others.





Cabbage White (Pieris rapae)

Figure 6.  Photo credits:   Sarefo

This small white butterfly (no more than 3 or 4 inches across) with a few black dots on its wings was accidentally introduced from Europe in the late 1800s, and is one of the few butterfly species in North America that is considered a pest on crops, especially as its name implies, on cabbages.  This is probably one of the most common species of butterfly in urban Chicago, as many of the plants that grow in urban lots are non-native weeds from its home territory.


Viceroy (Limentis archippus)

Figure 7.  Photo credits:  John Brunelle

Don't be fooled!  This butterfly looks very similar to the infamous Monarch, but is distinguished by its is smaller size and black lines crossing its lower pair of wings.  Also, this butterfly does not lay its eggs on Milkweed but instead chooses large trees such as Willows (Salix spp.) and Eastern Cottonwoods (Populus deltoides) and as such is probably more common in urban neighborhoods like University Village than its look-alike counterpart the Monarch butterfly. 

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)

Figure 8.  Photo credits:  John Brunelle

This is one of our showiest and largest native butterfly species.  Its wingspan is about 3-5 inches and their is a tail-like protrusion from each of its hind-wings, hence the name "swallowtail".  This common species of butterfly is more successful in woodland areas, but you will likely encounter it fluttering through the garden on a nice hot and humid summer day. 

The next time you are out pulling weeds or watering your garden plot, stop to smell the roses  and admire the butterflies that find refuge in our urban garden farm. 

You can learn more about Chicago's urban butterflies at:  http://www.naturemuseum.org/the-museum/blog/6-common-butterflies-you-ll-see-in-chicago-parks-and-gardens

• Butterflies - difference between attracting butterflies and supporting the life stages
• Life stages of butterflies
• Urban butterflies:  monarch, viceroy red admiral, orange-spotted skipper, tiger swallowtail, clouded sulfur, cabbage white