Let's look for zebras!
Backyard Safari
Monday, March 01, 2010
Media contact: Jessica Basham
Grab your tennis shoes, sunscreen and hat; it's time to look for
zebras in your backyard. We're not talking about the kind of
zebra you are thinking of, but a butterfly called a zebra
longwing!
These "zebras" are the official state butterfly of Florida. You
can see them all year throughout Florida. Join the Get
Outdoors, Florida! movement and begin your search for these
easy-to-spot butterflies, or their caterpillars and eggs, by
looking on the underside of a leaf of a passionflower vine.
Butterflies lay their eggs under leaves to protect their eggs and
young caterpillars from predators.
If you find a cluster of small oval dots about the size of the
tip of your pinky finger "stuck" to the bottom of a leaf, it may be
butterfly eggs. Please don't touch; they are very
delicate.
Zebra longwing caterpillars are creamy white and look as though
they have long, sharp spines. The spines are actually soft
and will not hurt you. However, many caterpillars look very
similar, and some are poisonous. It is safer to look and not
touch.
Passionflowers attract zebra longwings and are important to the
butterfly for its diet and for laying eggs. Butterflies lay
their eggs on specific plants called host plants. Host plants
provide the food caterpillars need when they hatch. For zebra
longwings the host plant is the passionflower vine. This
plant also contains a special toxin that helps zebra longwing
butterflies protect themselves from predators. This toxin
makes the insect taste bad to animals like birds that might want to
eat it.
If you don't have any passionflowers in your yard, you can also
find adult zebra longwings eating nectar and pollen from lantana,
verbena, firebush and shepherd's needle plants.
Using their proboscis, a straw-like tube extending from their
head, butterflies can drink the nectar flowers make. One
thing that makes zebra longwings and some other longwings different
from other butterflies is that they eat pollen. Most
butterflies live only a few weeks, but longwings live up to six
months because of the addition of pollen to their diet.
Activity: If you can't find any zebra longwings in your yard,
there are other butterflies you can seek. Ask your mom or dad
if your family can buy and plant a passionflower or other nectar
plants to attract butterflies to your backyard. Not only will
you have many colorful flowers to look at but the beginning of a
butterfly garden!
To learn more about butterflies and butterfly viewing, visit
MyFWC.com/Viewing. Or, just search the Web for "butterfly
crafts." The Web offers many ideas, from paper-chain
caterpillars to butterfly window hangers. Enjoy looking for
zebras!
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