Introduction

Butterflies have been around for over 56 million years. Butterflies have four stages in their life cycle: egg, larvae, pupa, and adult. Most butterflies are herbivores and only eat plants and leaves. Nearly anywhere with nectar-producing flowers will host butterflies which is why they can be found in a wide variety of habitats from tropical forests to deserts to grasslands to tundra (1). There are many different types of butterflies which come in many colors and sizes. You can see them almost anywhere in the world. For example, the most common species of butterflies in North America include: Tiger Swallowtails, Black Swallowtail, Cabbage White, Orange Sulphur, Spring Azure, Mourning Cloak, Question Mark and Comma, Monarch, and many more in North America and around the world (2).

Cultural connections 

Butterflies have different meanings depending on which part of the world you are from. Many different cultures take butterflies as significant creatures and associate them with some aspects of life. For example, butterflies have played a large role in Native American cultures. Given the large diversity between Tribes and regions, they all have their own unique names, knowledge, and experience for the butterfly. For the Blackfeet Nation, it was believed that butterflies were carriers of dreams. It was a custom for mothers to embroider a butterfly on buckskin strips to place in their baby's hair. They would then sing a lullaby calling the butterfly to bring the child sleep (3). The butterfly was a prominent figure in the myth and ritual of the Hopi tribe. This insect occurs frequently on prehistoric pottery and in the “Butterfly Dance”. The Butterfly Dance, a traditional social dance of the Hopi, is held in August or September after the gathering of the harvest and presentation of the Snake Dance. It is a thanksgiving ceremony for the harvest, chiefly for the corn crop. Like most Hopi ceremonies, the Butterfly Dance is a petition for rain, good health, and long life for all living things. The dance also recognizes the butterfly for its beauty and its contribution to pollinating plant life (4).

During the early development of the United States butterflies were seen as a symbol of the freedom America stood for. According to the book Butterfly People: An American Encounter with the Beauty of the World, “In the earlier age, Americans chased butterflies and butterflies coaxed them on, improving their minds, altering the way they lived and what they lived for, weaving into the American cultural fabric yet another thread of democratic life.” (xxvi, Leach) (7). This engaging and elegantly illustrated history shows how Americans from all walks of life passionately pursued butterflies, and how through their discoveries and observations they transformed the character of natural history.

In Germany, viticulturists or wine growers measure the impact of vineyards on the region using butterflies. Viticulture is one of the most intensively managed agricultural ecosystems in Europe. Therefore, the conservation problems of vineyards and the ecological benefits of increasing the amount of fallow land are addressed using butterflies as a model group.This was done to showcase the influence of changes in viticulture management on the butterfly diversity in a wine growing region of southwestern Germany (8). “We established 43 transects, each 100 m long, in a vineyard region in the vicinity of Trier (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany) and recorded the butterflies observed along these transects on 20 occasions from late May to early August 2003” (8).

According to a study done by Arnold Van Huisi on the cultural significance of Lepidoptera in sub-Saharan Africa (Lepidoptera is an order of insects that includes butterflies and moths.), many African communities interpret butterflies in a variety of ways. In Nigeria (Yoruba), a butterfly or moth entering a house during the day may be considered a good omen, for example, a pregnant woman getting a safe delivery. However, during the night, it is a bad omen (Ebibio). In Cameroon (Bafia, Bakoka, Bamileke, Bassa, Yambassa), when a butterfly or moth enters the house, an important visitor is expected to come to the house. However, when it is a black one, there will be a death or in Kenya (Luo) it brings illness to the children. In Senegal (Serer) and Chad (Mbaye), the entering of a butterfly or moth is considered an ancestor, and therefore the animal should not be killed. In Africa, the ancestors, or the living-dead, are believed to be disembodied spirits of people, incarnated in animals such as birds, butterflies/moths, bees, snakes and lions (Van Huis) (6).

Similarly, in Mexico and some other Latin American countries, monarch butterflies are thought of as people that recently passed away, or lost souls searching for a place to rest (13).The Monarch serves as a symbol of immigration for the Latino community, as it moves freely across North American borders, representing beauty, resilience, and natural survival (12). The migration of these butterflies symbolizes freedom, adventure, strength and transformation as it is a rigorous process of an astonishing 2000 miles that spans across multiple generations starting from central Mexico, during the spring, to the West or East Rocky Mountains. To learn more about the Monarch Butterfly and its connections to culture and social justice, check out the UIC Heritage Garden Monarch Kit and Guide: http://heritagegarden.uic.edu/monarch-kit-and-guide (12)

Pollinator’s role in the food system

Butterflies also act as a lower member of the food chain. They are a hearty meal for a number of animals, including birds and mice. As butterfly populations diminish, so will populations of birds and other animals that rely on them as a food source. This loss of the butterfly is the beginning of the “butterfly effect.” It will continue to affect the entire ecosystem, working its way up the trophic levels. Nearly two-thirds of all invertebrates can be connected back to the butterfly on the food chain. The loss of this seemingly insignificant insect could, potentially, collapse entire ecosystems that rely so heavily on them (5).

Many people across the world use insects as food and feed. In Nigeria (Yoruba), C. forda (called 'kanni' or 'munimuni') caterpillars, collected from leaves or from pitfall traps around the bases of trees, are starved to eliminate the gut contents, boiled (or smoked) for a few hours, sun dried on mats and then cooked in a stew of vegetables. In Nigeria, the caterpillar is twice as expensive as beef! (Van Huis) (6).

Although butterflies are less efficient than other insects, such as bees, at moving pollen between plants, they still act as pollinators (10). When a butterfly lands on a flower to drink nectar, the flower's pollen becomes attached and as the butterfly moves from flower to flower drinking more nectar, the pollen is transferred (11).

Milkweed plants serve as shelter and food for monarch larvae. Monarch butterflies lay their eggs underneath the leaves of milkweed plants. Once the eggs hatch, the caterpillars feed solely on milkweed which has  “milk” or white latex that is acidic and somewhat poisonous to many animals. Since the monarch caterpillars feed on milkweed, they absorb some of the plant’s acidic and poisonous substances. The substances are stored in their bodies throughout their life and therefore, the monarchs taste awful to many of their predators (12). 

Sources cited

  1. “Butterfly.” San Diego Zoo Wildlife Explorers, Accessed February 24, 2022. https://sdzwildlifeexplorers.org/animals/butterfly#:~:text=They%20are%20found%20in%20every,on%20every%20continent%20except%20Antarctica. 

  2. Naturalist “Ten Butterflies for Beginners.” Pfeiffer Nature Center, Accessed February 24, 2022. https://pfeiffernaturecenter.org/nature-blog/2011/07/ten-butterflies-for-beginners/.

  3. “Blackfoot.” New World Encyclopedia. Accessed March 26, 2022. https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Blackfoot.

  4. Suzanne. “Native American Legends of the Butterfly.” Butterfly Lady, 14 Oct. 2019. http://butterfly-lady.com/native-american-legends-of-the-butterfly/   

  5. “Pipevine Swallowtail - Battus Philenor.”, Features Creatures, Accessed February 24, 2022. https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/bfly/pipevine_swallowtail.htm.

  6. Kearney, Lauren. “How the Butterfly Can Shape an Ecosystem and Why We Need to Protect Them.” One Green Planet, One Green Planet, March 5 2021. https://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/how-the-butterfly-can-shape-an-ecosystem-and-why-we-need-to-protect-them/#:~:text=Butterflies%20play%20a%20number%20of,in%20a%20thriving%20ecosystem%20web.

  7. Leach, William. Butterfly People: An American Encounter with the Beauty of the World. Vintage Books, 2014. 

  8. SCHMITT, Thomas, et al. “The Influence of Changes in Viticulture Management on the Butterfly (Lepidoptera) Diversity in a Wine Growing Region of Southwestern Germany.” European Journal of Entomology, vol. 105, no. 2, 2008, pp. 249–255., https://doi.org/10.14411/eje.2008.035. 

  9. Van Huis, Arnold. “Cultural Significance of Lepidoptera in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, vol. 15, no. 1, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1186/s13002-019-0306-3. 

  10. “Butterfly Pollination,” U.S. Forest Service, Accessed April 5, 2022. https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/animals/butterflies.shtml

  11. “Butterflies and Pollination.” Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Accessed April 5, 2022. https://fairchildgarden.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ButterflyProgram.pdf

  12. UIC Heritage Garden. “Monarch Kit and Guide.” UIC Heritage Garden. Accessed April 14, 2022. http://heritagegarden.uic.edu/monarch-kit-and-guide. 

  13. “Rafael Cintrón Ortiz Latino Cultural Center.” Written Stories | Cuentos Escritos | Rafael Cintrón Ortiz Latino Cultural Center | University of Illinois Chicago. Accessed April 14, 2022. https://latinocultural.uic.edu/archives/stories/historias-monarca-monarch-stories/written-stories/