Bringing Back the Butterflies (BBB) campaign and Butterfly Gardens

Nearly everyone enjoys butterflies. Their colours and behaviours tend to brighten our day and increase our connection to nature. This is important when considering human well-being.

Educational opportunities
Studying butterflies and developing a butterfly garden are great ways to engage student learning at all levels and can readily be linked to the Australian Curriculum for Science (and other learning areas including Technologies, Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Mathematics, English, and Languages). Furthermore, it provides an opportunity to address the Cross-curriculum Priority of Sustainability. AAEESA have some resources for teachers available on our website and more are in the pipeline.

Community connections
Planning, developing, ongoing monitoring and maintaining a butterfly garden also provides opportunities to develop and enhance connections with the local community. These could include conservation groups, local experts, plant nurseries, and hardware stores.

Conservation
South Australia has around 78 species of butterflies. Many of our local species are threatened. This is largely due to habitat destruction for urbanisation and agriculture. These threats have greatly diminished our biodiversity.

Symbiotic relationships
Some species of butterflies have unique and fascinating relationships with other insects such as ants. One amazing relationship exists between the Chequered Copper Butterfly (Lucia limbaria), its host plant Native Sorrel (Oxalis perennans), and a small black ant species (Iridomyrmex sp.) which tends the larvae (Butterfly Conservation SA Inc. FACT SHEET Lucia limbaria). This example is well worth further investigation.

Planning a Butterfly Garden
Butterflies have some very particular environmental needs. These needs must be considered when planning a butterfly garden. AAEESA has a very useful Site Analysis checklist tool and other practical suggestions on our website.

Host plants
Many caterpillars are very fussy eaters. Female butterflies will only lay their eggs on suitable host plants. Local butterfly species require local native plants. Knowing which species of butterflies are likely to be found in your area, and the plant species they rely upon is crucial when developing a butterfly garden.

Food plants
Adult butterflies can feed on the nectar from a wide range of flowers. Due to their body structure and shape of their mouthparts, butterflies feed on more open flowers rather than tubular ones.

Sheltered areas
Butterflies have delicate wings that can be easily damaged. They are not strong flyers and so require calm sheltered areas away from strong wind. This is best provided by low to medium dense shrubs.

Basking areas
Butterflies require areas of full sun to bask in. As they are unable to produce sufficient internal heat, they rely on external heat to be able to increase the rate of internal chemical reactions enabling them to fly and hence feed, mate, escape predators and so on. Well placed rocks (full sun and shelter from wind) provide good basking areas.

Water
Butterflies may require a small amount of water from time to time. They require shallow water for easy access. Some even prefer to drink from boggy mud areas.

No insecticides
Butterflies and their caterpillars are very susceptible to chemical use. This should be kept to a minimum or preferably eliminated. Native caterpillars will not occur in such numbers that they will threaten the health of host plants, so don’t worry about leaves being chewed as this is a good sign.

Join us
If you would like your school to be a part of the Bringing Back the Butterflies program, please contact us. We also suggest that you follow us on our socials for information about upcoming professional development opportunities regarding butterflies and a range of other environmental matters.

For further information please visit our website www.aaeesa.org

(Photographs by Bruce Baker)

Authors

Deidre Knight (Convenor of AAEESA and Coordinator of BBB) and Bruce Baker (AAEESA Committee Member and SASTA member for over 30 years) are passionate environmental educators and both past recipients of separate SA Environment Merit Awards.