Sap Feeding Butterflies

As I strolled down a path at the edge of the woods my eye was caught several times by the fluttering of many little camouflaged wings at the base of some of the big mulberry trees. When I finally went into the woods for a closer look I notice that each of the trees had large scars exuding sap that stained the trunk of the tree brown, and swarming around these scars were 40-50 butterflies at each tree.

At first glance I knew the butterflies to be some sort of emperor, but later identified them as Tawny Emperors (Asterocampa clyton).  Tawny Emperors belong to the family Nymphalidae, also known as brush-footed butterflies because most species in this family have a small or reduced pair of front legs. They are average sized butterflies with the upper side of their wings being brightly colored and the underside having a very dull color to help them blend in to the side of a tree as they are drinking it's sap.

Yes, sap! Unlike our traditional image of butterflies flying from flower to flower to get their diet of sugary nectar, these along with countless other species of butterfly prefer plant sap, and the fouler smelling carrion, and dung. In fact these butterflies will very rarely if ever go to a flower to drink nectar.

If you have a hackberry tree in or near your yard, I'm sure you have seen these little guys before, because hackberry is the sole host plant for their caterpillars. But, say you don't want to plant a scraggily hackberry tree in your yard, or start scaring up your trees for sap; what can you do to attract large groups of these fluttering beauties to your yard? Simply adding a few fruit stations in your garden would be a step in the right direction.

How to set up a fruit station:

• First you should gather any overripe or rotten fruit you have lying around the house, I'm sure everyone has at least one overripe banana! 
• Cut or peel away any dried or moldy parts and just leave the really juicy stuff.
• Pile it up on a plate and put that plate in a nice shady area somewhere in your garden.                     (I have built chain hangers to hang the fruit plates from under some of my big shade trees)

Good Luck attracting more butterflies, and as always Happy Gardening!!!