Bright future for butterflies

11:50am Monday 21st July 2008

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THERE was a time in the 1970s and 1980s when many of our British butterflies were very much under threat.

Thankfully things are improving to such an extent that numbers are increasing and some species are expanding their range.

This has been the case with the orange tip butterfly. When is an orange tip not an orange tip? The answer is when it is a female. Only the males have an orange tip to the edge of their wings – in the female orange tips these areas are dark grey.

Female orange tips lay their eggs on the leaves of plants in the cruciferae family which includes watercress, Jack by the Hedge and Crosswort. These plants get their family name because their flowers have four petals arranged in the form of a cross. All these plants are very rich in Vitamin C and in the times of the first Queen Elizabeth, crucifers were eaten in salads. Only one of these plants – the watercress – is still used in salads today.

The eggs hatch into caterpillars and these are the only part of the life cycle where the animals eat. After the caterpillar phase, butterflies turn into pupae.

Inside these pupae the caterpillar’s body is changed into adults and the life cycle begins again.

This four stage life history is called Metamorphosis.

This word is not as complicated as it sounds because in Greek it just means many changes which is just what happens in the life of butterflies.

All species go through these four stages and to find caterpillars all you have to do is to find a list of the food plants and look on the leaves.