Not only do butterflies depend on a variety of nectar-rich plants to feed on, but they also require host plants to sustain their larvae. Once the eggs have hatched, the caterpillars feed on the ...

Butterfly bush isn't a larval host plant and doesn't provide the habitat butterflies need for the next cycle of butterflies. Here's why butterfly bush isn't the best plant for butterflies and ...

Gardeners are always in search of the greatest plant ever; one that has beautiful color, is pest free and easy to grow. Gardeners many times overlook plant material that is right under our noses.

Sometimes, nature's surprises come with wings. In a new study , scientists pulled from a 35-year dataset to examine long-term population trends of ...

Fall and winter rains spark the germination of the host plant, which in turn causes the larvae to come out of dormancy. These butterflies may spend several years in a dormant period, briefly breaking ...

Echoing our finding, other scientists conducted a genetic analysis in 2023 that also found no evidence of population decline in monarchs, or in common milkweed, the butterflies’ main larval host plant ...

Colony estimates at central Mexico overwintering sites indicate that monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus ... Loss of milkweed (Asclepiadaceae) host plants in the spring and summer breeding habitat in ...

A larva of swallowtail butterfly Papilio xuthus changes its body pattern at the 4th molt. The juvenile larva resembles bird droppings (left) in its fourth developmental stage, or "instar," and its ...

DESCRIPTION: Adult Hermes copper butterflies have a wingspan between ... Eggs are laid singly on stems of the host plant. LIFE CYCLE: Winter diapause, or dormancy, occurs during the egg stage. Larvae ...