Rachel's Reasoning

On Saturday night, I got out a piece of paper and a book about Butterflies and Moths and How They Live by Robert M. McClung, intending to draw a butterfly or moth. When I want to draw something, like an animal, insect or plant, I have look for something to draw, I can’t just start drawing something. I have to spend time to figure out what I am going to draw.

I was sitting at my desk, looking through the book, trying to find a moth or butterfly to draw. I slowly turned each page, looking over each drawing carefully, looking at the different kinds of moths and butterflies. I got to the end of the book and went over it again. Then I saw a curious drawing of two monarch butterflies, and had to find out what they were doing. So, instead of drawing one, I read almost the entire book, learning lots of different things I hadn’t known about the beautiful creatures God made to flutter and fly around me when I’m in the fields.

I learned a thing or two about trapping/capturing techniques and about preserving them to study and draw. I also learned about how to build a mount to hold them on while you study them. I will post a few tips I picked up from the book: (Note: All the writings below are taken from the book Butterflies and Moths and How They Live by Robert M. McClung.)

A good place to collect hawkmoths is a flower garden at dusk. At this time many of these swift moths come to the flowers to feed. They are particularly fond of petunias, phlox, and four-o’clocks. You have to be quick to catch them, for they dart from blossom to blossom.

Moths are especially attracted by ultraviolet light, and if you set up one of these lamps to shine on a sheet, many different species are sure to come to it.

Butterflies are sometimes captured in box traps baited with overly ripe fruit. Male moths can be captured at night in much the same way, except that a newly emerged female must be used as the bait. Only males of this particular species will come to the trap.

A strong-smelling bait is prepared by mixing brown sugar, molasses, and beer together. Some collectors recommend adding crushed, overripe bananas, or even a teaspoon or two of rum. In early evening, while it is still light, this powerful-smelling bait is painted on a number of tree trunks or posts along some well-defined path. The route should be in or a woodland, not out in the middle of a cleared field. A warm night, just before or after a thunderstorm, is one of the best times for sugaring.

After dark, the collector walks along his trapline with a flashlight and checks each tree or post. He must take the moths feeding at the bait quickly, for they are wary. Sometimes the best method for capturing them is to hold the net or killing jar just below each specimen. Most moths tend to fall downward when disturbed.

Ok, so now you know a little bit about catching and hunting butterflies and moths. Why not learn about them mating? Here is a little about how they court and mate:

Among moths, it’s the female that attracts the male with a particular scent given off by glands in her abdomen. The male has sensitive antennae that detects this odor and guides him to the female.

Each specimen of giant silk moth has a particular time for courtship and mating. Polyphemus and Luna moths usually mate around midnight or during a short period just before dawn. Cecropia moths mate sometimes around 3am. Promethea moths, on the other hand, mate from late afternoon until dusk.

Now here is a bit about butterflies:

Unlike moths, most male butterflies locate a mate by sight. The colour and pattern of the female’s wings, and the way she flies, are all recognition signals. Some male butterflies can be attracted to paper dummies that have the same colour and pattern as those of the female. The males do not discover the trickery until they are very close to the dummies.

Among many butterflies , the male has scent organs on his body or wings. They give off a scent that helps to attracts the female during courtship. If you hold a male butterfly quite close to your nose, sometimes you can smell this scent. It is usually a very pleasant smell, like the odor of a spice or flower.

Milkweed butterflies, such as the monarch and its close relative the queen, have much larger brush like scent organs called hair pencils. They are usually hidden in the tip of the abdomen, but are extended during courting.

All right. I think that is all for one post. I didn’t mean it to get so long; and it was supposed to be about my drawing. I hope you learned as much as I did when I read the book about Butterflies and Moths and How They Live. I enjoyed reading about them.