Buying Monarchs, Painted Ladies, & Other Species

Shipping

Warning!

Monarch Instructions

Painted Lady Instructions

Aphids, Pests, Predators, Parasites and Parasitoids

Disease

Rearing Containers

Myth-conceptions

Free WebPage for your Class Photos

About Our Farm

Contact Us

False: It will harm a butterfly to touch it.
Truth: Gently handling a butterfly will not harm it.
Note: To hold a butterfly without removing scales, hold it as smoker’s hold a cigarette, between two fingers. Holding it with a finger and thumb can remove scales where the wings meet.

False: A butterfly cannot fly with damaged or broken wings.
Truth: Some butterflies fly with up to 75% of their wings missing. If this were not so, we would have fewer butterflies in our world. When a lizard or bird snatches at a butterfly, their wings can break leaving the predator with a mouth full of wing bits and the butterfly flies free.

False: Butterflies cannot fly with missing scales.
Truth: Although scales do not grow back, butterflies can fly without scales. Without scales, their wings are transparent.
Note: One purpose of scales is for a male to recognize a female of his species. If a Pipevine Swallowtail (the female has blue) is looking for a female and cannot find a female of his species, he will court other species with blue on their wings.

False: Butterflies are fragile and dainty.
Truth: Butterflies also eat dung, rotten fruit, and dead animals. They live through major storms.
Note: In spite of their horrible diet, butterflies grab at our hearts and imagination. We love them anyway!

False: Butterflies come from cocoons.
Truth: Many moths come from pupae in cocoons. On a whole, butterflies come from pupae (chrysalises) which are not in cocoons.

False: Female butterflies only mate once.
Truth: Female butterflies may mate several times. The male leaves a sac in her. When she lays her eggs, they are fertilized as they are laid. They are not fertile until she lays them.