Let’s Not Be Fooled By the “Tranquil” Life of a Butterfly
Sam Venable
Department of Irony
Let’s paraphrase that old, familiar warning about books (which, harrumph, doesn’t apply to the popular, humorous, informative, and inexpensive books written by Sam Venable, ideal for any shelf in your house.) Now, where was I? Oh yes, paraphrasing: “Never judge a butterfly by its color, nor its dainty demeanor.”
I learned this lesson after paying close attention to butterflies in the wildflower beds around our place. Every summer, it’s a joy to watch these angelic wisps, of various sizes and species, as they innocently flit about their tasks. How peaceful! How serene!
At least that’s the way it was until my idyllic bubble was lanced by reality.
Things began unraveling one morning when I visually tracked a black swallowtail as it zigged and zagged through a rainbow of zinnias. After several minutes, I realized this wasn’t random behavior. Despite a wide selection of colors, it specialized in purple. Didn’t matter if a red or yellow bloom was inches away. Soon as it left a purple one, it would flippity-flip around the garden until locating another purple bloom.
What’s more, I discovered it had an attitude. If another butterfly entered the patch, it would immediately drop everything and chase the intruder away.
Well, yes, “chase” is a bit of a stretch. This looked more like a friendly game of tag. But the speed of the assault told me here was the butterfly version of opening a 64-ounce can of whup-ass.
I snapped a photo and sent it, along with some questions, to my friend Warren Bielenberg, a retired National Park Service ranger. He’s a knower of much stuff about birds and butterflies.
The first thing Warren did was correct my ID.
“ That’s not a Black Swallowtail,” he said. “It’s a Pipevine Swallowtail.” Turns out, the caterpillar from whence it came had fed on acidic vegetation, rendering it distasteful to birds and other predators. Other species mimic the pipevine to avoid being eaten.
He agreed butterflies are able to identify colors and have their favorites.
“In my yard, they prefer purple butterfly bush to other flowers,” he said. “I don’t have zinnias this year, but in the past, I’ve noticed different species tended to go to specific colors.”
Warren also said butterflies can be quite territorial and aggressive. An exception to this hostility often occurs when they converge (the correct term is “puddling”) at a source of moisture.
“I’ve seen four to six different species puddling together,” he told me.
What’s more, they’ll belly up to the bar wherever it is and whatever’s on tap.
Such as?
“Anything from moist gravel to human urine to fresh bear or coyote scat,” he said.
Gross! Blech! Between that and the fisticuffs, I’ll never again think of butterflies as “dainty.”
Sam Venable is an author, comedic entertainer, and humor columnist for the Knoxville (TN) News Sentinel. His latest book is “The Joke’s on YOU! (All I Did Was Clean Out My Files).” He may be reached at sam.venable@outlook.com.