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Butterflies: a feast for more than eyes Butterflies: a feast for more than eyes
(30 days later)
Day by day, summer has been eating its way through the nasturtium at the back door. Over the past fortnight, I have conducted my own leafwatch. Victorian naturalists used systematic, meticulous, studies to gain insights: I’m looking in my lunch break. Even so, during these half-hour snatches, I’ve discovered a tiny something that contradicts an authoritative textbook.Day by day, summer has been eating its way through the nasturtium at the back door. Over the past fortnight, I have conducted my own leafwatch. Victorian naturalists used systematic, meticulous, studies to gain insights: I’m looking in my lunch break. Even so, during these half-hour snatches, I’ve discovered a tiny something that contradicts an authoritative textbook.
We call them cabbage whites, the butterflies with a taste for brassicas, but these insects have a fondness for nasturtiums too. One flits over the fence and breaks its zigzag course through the garden to home in. It circles and lands on leaf after leaf, wings whipped into a frenzy at the point of exact touchdown.We call them cabbage whites, the butterflies with a taste for brassicas, but these insects have a fondness for nasturtiums too. One flits over the fence and breaks its zigzag course through the garden to home in. It circles and lands on leaf after leaf, wings whipped into a frenzy at the point of exact touchdown.
It drifts away, returns and samples a couple more. By some miraculous discovery, scientists learned that butterflies have taste buds in their feet. What exactly are they tasting, and what makes them chose to dip their abdomen and dab their egg on one particular leaf above all others? Each find opens up a dozen questions.It drifts away, returns and samples a couple more. By some miraculous discovery, scientists learned that butterflies have taste buds in their feet. What exactly are they tasting, and what makes them chose to dip their abdomen and dab their egg on one particular leaf above all others? Each find opens up a dozen questions.
Related: Blot out and backcross: the butterfly’s genetic secret?
The large white lays a cluster of bottle-shaped eggs as if it were setting out a rack on a ten-pin bowling alley, but I am seeing small whites, the barely distinguishable lesser cabbages that lay singly. My textbook tells me they deposit each egg on the underside of a leaf. But my eyes tell me that’s not always so. I have seen at least a dozen eggs sitting proud on leaf tops, yellow on green, crying out “eat me”. And the next day, they are invariably gone.The large white lays a cluster of bottle-shaped eggs as if it were setting out a rack on a ten-pin bowling alley, but I am seeing small whites, the barely distinguishable lesser cabbages that lay singly. My textbook tells me they deposit each egg on the underside of a leaf. But my eyes tell me that’s not always so. I have seen at least a dozen eggs sitting proud on leaf tops, yellow on green, crying out “eat me”. And the next day, they are invariably gone.
Tiny holes in the leaves speak of the survivors, the nasturtium-green caterpillars furry with hairs like micro-glitter, whose eggs were perhaps laid underneath and safely out of sight. I turn over a new leaf and find one caterpillar, mouth poised over a hole that has doubled in size since yesterday.Tiny holes in the leaves speak of the survivors, the nasturtium-green caterpillars furry with hairs like micro-glitter, whose eggs were perhaps laid underneath and safely out of sight. I turn over a new leaf and find one caterpillar, mouth poised over a hole that has doubled in size since yesterday.
A big caterpillar lies lengthways along another leaf midrib. Though it’s hard to spot, camouflage will be no defence when night falls, for it is then that harvestmen and beetles scale the stems and pluck them like fruit from a tree. How will the caterpillar protect itself then?A big caterpillar lies lengthways along another leaf midrib. Though it’s hard to spot, camouflage will be no defence when night falls, for it is then that harvestmen and beetles scale the stems and pluck them like fruit from a tree. How will the caterpillar protect itself then?
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