♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ There are really two groups of animals that grab people's attention.

And I think these two groups get people's attention because they're brightly colored and they're very active.

They have wings, so they fly by: the birds and the butterflies.

And we want to zero in on butterflies right now and talk about them a little bit, especially butterflies that are common within the boundaries of the United States.

I guess one way to approach it is to put them in the right classification scheme.

They belong to the animal kingdom.

The next level down in classification is called a phylum.

And the phylum that they belong to is a group called the arthropods.

If you break that word down, arthro, joint, pod, leg, the joint-legged animals.

these are animals with an exoskeleton, a hard, shell-like covering on the outside, and jointed legs.

And there are quite a few species that belong to this group, arthropods: the spiders, the crabs, and also the group that the butterflies belong to, and that's the class that they belong to, the insects, the Insecta.

Used to be called the hexapods because most insects have six legs, but now we call them insects.

Typical, three body parts in insects: a head, a thorax, and an abdomen.

On the head, you would always have a pair of antennae, a couple of compound eyes.

On the thorax, you have usually six legs, but there are a number of species of butterflies with only four legs, not six.

And then usually, of course, four wings is typical of butterflies and most of the other insects, and then the large abdomen on the end.

Then insects can be broken down into the next level, called orders, and the order that butterflies belong to is the order Lepidoptera, Lepidos means "“scale.

"” P-T-E-R-A means "“wing.

"” The scale-winged insects, butterflies and moths.

Really, moths are more abundant than butterflies, but we're gonna be looking specifically at butterflies right now.

So let's get started.

Big butterflies usually catch your eyes first.

The swallowtails are the real common butterflies that get fairly large and sometimes puddle together.

This is the pipevine swallowtail, puddling, coming together to get a little moisture.

You can see the tongue coming out, slurping up a little moisture, and all that purple on the back of the hind wing and forewing.

The swallowlike tails give it the name.

This is the caterpillar of the pipevine swallowtail, pretty incredible-looking animal, feeding on--snakeroot is one of the common names for the larval food plant, or birthwort.

Aristolochia is the genus name.

Changing plant into animal.

Isn't that incredible, watching it chew right along the edge of the leaf?

Pipevine swallowtails are pretty common around the eastern half of the United States, but caterpillars, it's amazing, the larval stage in the life cycle of that butterfly.

And this is the underside of the wing of the pipevine swallowtail.

Again, more purple there, and little portholes of yellow on the side of the abdomen.

Legs out there, six legs, like insects would be expected to have.

Here's a spicebush swallowtail among them.

You see a little light blue on the top of the hind wing, swallowlike tails and the same markings on the side, but very, very different on the top and bottom.

Again, swallowtails get the name from those swallowlike tails sticking off.

And there's the pair of antennae with the bulges on the end.

Another swallowtail is really pretty widespread, the eastern tiger swallowtail.

The males are bright yellow with black stripes.

Females usually are a lot darker than that.

Again, here's one puddling at a puddle, standing water, wet ground, slurping up a little moisture and maybe some minerals too.

Larval food plant for this is tuliptrees.

It's the state butterfly of South Carolina and the state of Georgia.

But pretty obvious.

Look at the back wings on this one.

Something has torn those wings.

Maybe it flew into something, or a bird took a bite out of it.

That happens a lot to butterflies.

Then the zebra swallowtail with zebra striping on the wings, the long tails, sometimes called a kite swallowtail because it almost looks like tails on a kite sticking off the back.

And you can see individual scales on the wing, which are pretty exciting, and a little bit of red on the top.

There would be a red stripe on the underside of the wing.

But look at the fuzzy scales too.

They look almost like hairs on the front part of the body.

There are the pair of antennae with the bulge on the end and those compound eyes that you would expect to see.

Zebra swallowtails love to live in low, wet places where the larval food plant grows.

And there it is, pawpaw.

There is the caterpillar of the zebra swallowtail butterfly, with zebra striping on it, too, on the larval food plant.

If you want to protect butterflies, you protect the larval food plants.

Greater variety of larval food plants, you would have a greater variety of butterflies coming there.

I just love the markings on that particular animal.

Then the great southern white.

There are many whites, or sulphur butterflies.

This one has a little blue on the tip of the antenna.

And this is one that's really in the lower Southeast, and it comes up a little farther if the season is a little extra warm.

These are Spanish needles, the flowers they're going to.

That's a cluster of flowers, so the tongue goes into each flower, one at a time.

And nectar, of course, is energy that keeps '‘em flying.

And that energy originates in the sun, trapped by the plant, gets into the body of the butterfly.

The biggest yellow butterfly in the United States, the cloudless sulphur.

Long tongue going into those flowers, and, again, six legs on it.

A little bit of darker markings, but mainly all yellow.

Cloudless sulphur.

It doesn't have a lot of dark markings on the edge of the wing.

And you can see that tongue is long enough to go down into deep-throated flowers.

This one's easy to see because it's very, very active.

Sometimes in the Southeast, the population really explodes, and it begins to migrate, oftentimes heading north.

Look at that tongue, going way down the long throat of that tubular flower, getting nectar, and nectar is sugar.

Some butterflies are big and obvious.

Some are small, and this one, if it hadn't moved, I don't think we would have seen it.

Out west, one of the blues, the acmon blue butterfly.

Look at the red on the underside and that silver, oh boy.

The black and the silver, incredible, and the markings on the antennae are typical of the blues.

Most of the blues are actually blue in color, but sometimes they are not.

But you see the small size.

They often position themselves, open up the wings, get a little more energy from the sun to warm them up.

Look at the markings on the top of those hind wings and that little bit of blue reflection on it too.

Tiny, little butterfly, probably as big as your thumbnail.

Of course, butterflies don't grow any bigger.

When you see an insect with wings, you're looking at an adult insect almost all the time.

This is the smallest butterfly, the pygmy blue butterfly.

It doesn't have a whole lot of blue.

It's more brown.

Antennae look about the same.

Wind's blowing it a little, but this is one that loves salty situations along the coast in the east and in the west, and this is the western species in the salt flats out west.

And that butterfly is hard to believe, the small size of it, until you put something in there that you're familiar with to kind of give you a feeling for how small it is.

And this is on one of those salt bushes, and that's my index finger going in.

Look at that tiny, little butterfly.

Of course, these butterflies, all of them we've looked at, as a general rule live about two weeks as an adult.

There are exceptions to the rule, but the rule is a very short adult lifespan.

One of the rarest blues, the Karner blue butterfly.

We saw this one in Wisconsin.

Oh, look at the blue on the back.

Look at the markings on the top of the hind wing.

These are incredibly beautiful animals, and this one lays eggs on lupines.

Looks like a female with a large abdomen full of eggs that she would deposit one at a time on lupine leaves.

Again, the connection with the larval food plant.

This is one of those endangered species in the United States.

What a beautiful animal, and just a small one.

And the American copper, called that because of those coppery markings on the wings.

Gray otherwise, and then all of that bright color.

The coppers are widespread in the United States.

Not as diverse as the blues, but they're related to them, and the antennae look a little bit alike.

There again, compound eyes, a pair of antennae, head, thorax, abdomen, like you would expect on an insect.

When you've got lots of flowers, you expect lots of butterflies, and these are gulf fritillaries.

Boy, I love the orange color on the back, a little silver spotting on the top of the wing, but there are only four legs.

There are quite a few of our butterflies that only have four legs.

The front pair are vestigial.

They're insects, but they only have four legs that function.

There's that long tongue coming out.

Oh, this is a good view of the tongue going into that deep tubular flower, and look at the colors on that animal.

Not a scale missing, so you would expect this animal would have emerged from a chrysalis recently.

It hadn't been flying for a long, long time.

But there it is, doing its work.

A little bit of white edging on the wing is nice too, and the silver spots on the underside of the wings, one of the most beautiful butterflies that we've got.

Variegated fritillary, doesn't have quite all the silver on it, but that's that brown and yellow-orange look.

You can see the antennae sticking up, usually autumn.

This is probably an autumn field where this one was flying.

But variegated fritillary is the common name for it.

Lays eggs on quite a variety of plants.

Sitting on a little flower called blue vervain.

Lots of flowers there, lots of nectar.

And here's one of the bigger butterflies called a fritillary, the great spangled fritillary.

There's that proboscis.

Look at the color in those compound eyes and the fuzz on the back.

That's an amazing animal, and, again, count the number of legs.

There are only four here.

Quite a few of our butterflies really only have four functional legs.

But look at the markings on the back of that.

Sitting on butterfly weed, which is one of the milkweeds.

Boy, that's attractive to butterflies, so the common name makes pretty good sense.

Up close and personal looks like this, the fuzz on those little palps out front and then those interesting reflections in the compound eye.

Oh, boy, nectar must taste really good.

And that's energy that, again, the plant produces.

It draws insects, and they oftentimes carry away pollen or pollen sacs.

Pearl crescent butterflies, pretty abundant, sharing this group of flowers with a little weevil.

Pearl crescent butterflies, really common, widespread all over the United States.

Great number of varieties.

They're feeding there, and this looks like a mating pair that actually are still sticking together, clinging together.

Usually, the female is larger than the male.

And even in the breeze, holding on and bouncing around just a little bit.

Markings on the antennae too, very much like the blues that we saw earlier, or the coppers.

And then this one is called a Texan crescentspot, and the eastern version of this, the Seminole crescent.

Not common in the Southeast, but scattered, just junk populations of them.

I love the bright white on the back of the wings.

That white band is typical of the species.

♪ thththththththththththththththt, that Lepidoptera, that order, is one of the four most common groups of insects, one of the four most common orders of insects, and I think I know why.

All four of the top groups of insects carry on something called complete metamorphosis.

You lay an egg, which develops into a larva, which forms a pupa, which becomes an adult.

There are four stages of development, and those stages are very different.

The egg is laid on the larval food plant.

That's one of those connections that's interesting.

If you like a diversity of butterflies, you want a diversity of larval food plants.

The female lays an egg on the proper plant.

That develops into a larva, which in butterflies we call a caterpillar.

They eat certain species.

Some of them are picky; others are not.

Finally, they form a pupa, a resting stage, which in a butterfly you would call a chrysalis.

And then big changes occur in that phase, and then the adult butterfly comes out of that.

Caterpillar feeds on leaves.

The adult butterfly is a nectar feeder for the most part.

Mouthparts change; it gets wings.

It gets those antennae that we talked about.

The change that occurs in the chrysalis is really pretty incredible.

It's like the rabbit-out-of-the-hat trick raised to the nth degree.

And then, of course, the adult butterfly is what we want to get back into right now.

Again, a butterfly getting a little bit of moisture.

This one has a little, silvery comma shape and then a space and a little dot on the underside of the hind wing.

Question mark butterfly is the common name for it.

Only four legs, as you see.

This is one of those butterflies that overwinters as an adult and are sometimes called anglewing butterflies.

Another close relative of that one is the mourning cloak.

A cloak of mourning was worn in Europe, dark coat with a little yellow edging, and that's the reason for the name of this animal.

In Europe, this is called the Camberwell beauty, but we call it the mourning cloak butterfly.

It overwinters as an adult, too, and comes out and feeds on sap that oozes out of trees.

I think that's what's going on here.

The head is down in this one.

See the markings on the back.

Look at the purple on the back, that brown, my goodness, and that yellow edging.

Picking up moisture out of mud.

Right along the Congaree River is where we were when this picture was taken.

But isn't that interesting?

These adult butterflies are fluid feeders for sure.

And the red admiral butterfly.

That red band on the wings, pretty typical.

Again, four legs.

Tongue out, so it must be getting moisture or liquid from something on the side.

And another one that looks a little like that red admiral-- matter of fact, this is the red admiral still.

It's got that red band across the top.

And now you can see the red on the top of the hind wing.

It really is easily confused at this angle with a couple of other butterflies called the painted ladies.

But that's the red admiral, and it looks very fresh.

Now, speaking of painted lady butterflies, this is one of those butterflies that's kind of interesting because of the color on the back, the color on the underside of the front wing, and a pair of false eyespots.

On the underside of the hind wing, there are eyespots that draw the predators' attention away from the body to the back.

The American lady is what it's called.

Used to be called the American painted lady.

See those two eyespots on the underside of the hind wing and that rouge-red color on the underside of the forewing, which always gives the name painted lady to it, but now known as the American lady.

There's another one up close and personal.

You see the pink on the forewing and those big eyespots on the underside of the hind wing.

And nectar, nectar, nectar.

The one on top hasn't been flying as long as the one on bottom.

This one has a number of eyespots, not just two big ones, but four or five.

And this is the painted lady butterfly, and this species is in North America and also in Europe and does a little bit of migrating sometimes.

The buckeye butterfly, oh boy, that's beautiful.

Common buckeye butterfly, pretty incredible animal, and pieces of the tail wings, hind wings missing, V-shaped, as if the bird grabbed it when the wings were together, going for what the bird thought was the head where the eyes are, and tearing the wings up, and the animal is still flying.

This one is common in the eastern United States, and has a number of broods every year.

Again, the adults live about two weeks.

Here's one that's not so damaged, one very fresh.

Oh, my goodness, the colors!

Buckeye, common buckeye butterfly.

Look how big those eyespots are on the back of the butterfly, and little, orange bands on the front wings too.

Widespread, and like I said, lots of broods.

They're flying every warm month in the United States, and in Florida, that would be a good part.

That was the adult.

This is the larva or caterpillar of the buckeye butterfly.

Little spiny things on it, looks like it might sting, but this is not one that causes problems.

Whenever you see caterpillars with bristles, though, better to be safe than sorry.

But this is the caterpillar of that buckeye butterfly.

It's amazing the changes that occur in the pupal stage.

But that's an interesting animal and very common.

If you look carefully, you'll find these on a variety of larval food plants.

The goatweed butterfly, or goatweed leafwing it's called because when the wings are held together, it looks like a leaf.

One part of the wing is torn in the back, and see the brown markings on the top of the wing.

This is one that, when it's still, looks like a leaf on a branch.

And, again, just four legs, as you can see there.

Look at the antennae aiming up like a little leaf.

All sorts of insects, a little beetle next to it.

There was a fly there.

All three of those are insects.

And they're representing three of the most common orders of insects.

But the goatweed leafwing, I think appropriately named.

It looks like a leaf.

Hackberry emperor butterfly, tongue out here, on a yucca.

Yuccas have very slippery flowers, and I think this butterfly's gonna do a little bit of slippin' and slidin' here in a minute.

But lays eggs on hackberry plants, so the common name, hackberry butterfly.

Another close-up look at it, with the dark eyespot on the underside of the front wing.

There's the tongue down, white on the tips of the antennae, getting a little bit of fluid.

It looks almost like bird droppings, that white on the wood, and I bet it's getting a few minerals from that also.

Looks fresh, though.

That one hasn't been flying for very long.

Again, laying eggs on hackberry trees.

Of course, the butterfly that's so big, well known, the monarch butterfly that the last brood migrates in the eastern half of the United States to Mexico.

An amazing animal, very sturdily built, goes a good distance.

You see just four legs instead of six, but there are the pair of antennae that are down, and that proboscis coming out.

Amazing the way they fly.

How do they know where those two ridges are in Mexico?

We really aren't sure.

There are great mysteries in this world.

But tanking up on nectar, getting the energy so that it can fly away.

The orange, black, and white, pretty easily identified.

This was in the western United States.

That's little prairie coneflower there with the yellow flowers hanging down.

Oh, I love that, with the wings spread, and off he goes.

This one is the eyed brown butterfly.

There are a number of small brown butterflies with false eyespots on the wings.

This one's pretty widespread, but a rather delicate animal.

Loves floodplain forests and sits perched in this position, giving us a close look at it.

A relative, the pearly eye butterflies, lay eggs on the plant this one's sitting on, switch cane.

This is a Creole pearly eye butterfly.

Pearly white with those eyespots, so pearly eye butterfly makes pretty good sense, and typical of floodplains because that's where the larval food plant is.

Silver-spotted skipper, one of the larger skippers.

Look at the antennae!

They've got a bulge on the end and a little hook.

That's typical of the skippers.

This one has six legs, like you would expect an insect to have.

Silver spot on the underside of the hind wing, pretty obvious.

This is another skipper; look at the antennae.

Long tails, so long-tailed skipper is a good common name.

Love those long tails, and a little green on the back, and the markings on the undersides of the wings.

But the tongue is active.

These animals love flowers with clusters of flowers, and that's what it's sitting on, going from one group of flowers to another.

This is another view of the long-tailed skipper.

You can see that greenish color.

Look at the way he rolls the proboscis up!

That's kind of neat, isn't it?

Rolls up for easier flying, and then you can unroll it, stick it down the throat of a flower, get some nectar, carry off a little pollen, and fertilize other plants.

Those connections are amazing.

The funereal or duskywing skipper is really common in the springtime.

Dark in color, which I guess gives it the common name.

Lays eggs on new growth on oak trees, for the most part.

This one isn't the most showy of the butterflies, but it'll get your attention too.

♪ Now, what about books that are useful as far as indentifying butterflies?

One of the nice ones and a good one to start with, "“Butterflies and Moths: a Golden Guide.

"” St. Martin's Press publishes these.

Loaded with good information on butterflies and moths.

Nice pictures inside; range maps are good.

It shows you the caterpillar, talks about the larval food plant, as well as showing you the adult.

That's nice, and then the next level would be "“Butterflies of North America,"” the Kaufman Focus Guides.

I think it's very, very nice.

Photographs inside there are exquisite, and range maps are up to date.

Scientific names are up to date.

So that helps you answer, "“What is that butterfly?

"” To get close to butterflies, there are two ways.

One without hurting them at all is using binoculars.

There are books with a title like "“Butterflies through Binoculars.

"” When you're looking at binoculars, notice the amount of magnification.

That's that first number on the left.

This is 8x30.

Eight power magnification is a good bit.

I'd have to stand a good ways away to view the butterfly.

Seven would be better than eight.

That means you can see '‘em when you're closer to them without having to back up.

The other way to get close is to use insect nets.

Biological supply houses have these.

I usually get mine from Ward's Biological Supplies in Rochester, New York.

Then with a magnifying glass, 8 to 10 power, that's a nice way to see how many legs they've got and get a close look at the compound eyes and the rest.

My final word is gonna be about conservation.

You don't want to have negative effect on this world.

You want to look at butterflies, but you don't want to damage the populations.

Care for special habitats, open fields like this with woods close by.

If you capture butterflies, unless you've got a really strong reason to collect '‘em, let '‘em go, release them, and get a chance to see '‘em again later.

These are special organisms.

Let's take special care of them.

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