Blighty-Bugs
A butterfly house is a curious series of rooms –
A bit like a tropical farm,
Where exotic moths can dine on exotic blooms,
With wingspans as wide as my palm.
Or so I had hoped – but this was no Forest of Arden –
Or jungle of scent-heavy petals –
But flitting about were familiar sights from the garden,
And all that was growing were nettles.
It turned out they mastered in only British varieties,
Tortoiseshells, coppers, and whites.
Pretty, but small – the kind that give gard’ners anxieties,
Or taken-for-granted delights.
Oh sure, the elephant-hawks are impressive as caterpills,
Stripping the fuchsia to shreds,
But overall, any good hedgerow holds similar thrills,
Without the need of these sheds.
Although, as a lifelong dweller of chalky downs,
And the home-strip lads that brings.
It was good to see some strangers from limestone towns
With a Northern brogue to their wings.
So yeah, I guess I enjoyed them in concentration,
A blaze about the flowers –
And proof that beauty can still exist in our nation –
Because all of these ones are ours !
Of course, I have mused on butterflies numerous times before, but after writing this I decided to put my prose where my poetry was:
I asked a few AIs for a plan to build such a self-sustaining glasshouse, with a list of the fewest number of native plants ? Here is the consensus:
Firstly, a fair spread of readily-available lepids:
| Type | Name | Flying Season |
| Whites | Large (Cabbage) White | Apr-Ocy |
| Green-Veined White | Apr-Sep | |
| Yellows | Orange-Tip | Apr-May |
| Clouded Yellow | May-Oct | |
| Blues | Common Blue | May-Sep |
| Small Copper | Apr-Oct | |
| Browns | Meadow Brown | Jun-Sep |
| Speckled Wood | Mar-Oct | |
| Gatekeeper | Jul-Aug | |
| Duke of Burgundy | Apr-Jun | |
| Brush-Footed | Small Tortoiseshell | Mar-Oct |
| Red Admiral | Mar-Nov | |
| Comma | Apr-Oct | |
| Peacock | Mar-Nov | |
| Skippers | Large Skipper | Jun-Jul |
| Day-Flying Moths | Six-Spotted Burnet | Jun-Aug |
| White Ermine (woolly caterpillars!) | May-Jul | |
| Hawk-Moths | Hummingbird Hawk-Moth (giant caterpillars!) | Jun-Sep |
| Other possibilities: Yellows | Brimstone | Mar-Oct |
| Blues | Small Blue | May-Jun |
| Browns | Wall | Apr-Sep |
| Ringlet | Jun-Aug | |
| Hairstreaks | Green Hairstreak | Apr-Jun |
The months listed above are for topical outdoor activity, so may be extended indoors with earlier Springtime starts and possibly a second or third brood. If the glasshouse is insulated but not heated (except to keep it above 5°C through the Winter), this will mean that not all of these species can be self-sustaining, as some of them migrate (Clouded Yellow, Hummingbird Hawk-Moth), and fresh stocks will need to be brought in each Spring (this is something all butterfly houses need to do). I can see making use of an ornate pupilarium with windows to watch them ‘hatch’. We will also have some structural little brick towers around to provide dry pupation sites.
A few other species to consider include the Small Blue, the Wall, the Ringlet, the Green Hairstreak, and above all the Brimstone. However, the Small Blue will require its own special food source, the kidney vetch, while the Brimstone needs a common buckthorn. This latter plant is especially a problem in a glasshouse, as it is a large shrub, though it can ber coppiced. (By the way, I call it a glasshouse instead of a grweenhouse to emphesise that it will be considerably larger than the things found at the bottom of the garden for growing tomatoes in.)
Another reason for being cagey about including the Brimstone (despite it possibly being the very lepid that gave us the word butter-fly) is that they aren’t so common anymore, and we certainly don’t want to be messing-around with anything endangered…
But since aphids and mildew are inevitable, I decided to also include the following ladybirds:
2-Spot
7-Spot
22-Spot (though this one might be trickier to source, but should be able to make a good mildew-munching colony in the honeysuckle)
So, the plants need to be robust, and able to regrow quickly after heavy defoliation by caterpillars, while also provide nectar for the butterflies/moths for the entire time they are flying. Indeed, I wanted to make sure that there were two different nectar sources incase of any issues, though I held off doing the same foe feed plants, as a lack of food will be an important population control. Here’s the answer I got:
| Plant | Larval Host For | Adult Nectar For | Blooms |
| Sheep’s Sorrel (Rumex acetosella) – Shoots out rhizomes, so keep it in pots. | Small Copper | None | (Mar-Nov) |
| Cock’s-Foot Grass (Dactylis glomerata) | Meadow Brown Speckled Wood Large Skipper | None | (May-Jul) |
| False Brome Grass (Brachypodium sylvaticum) | Speckled Wood | None | (May-Jul) |
| Red Fescue Grass (Festuca rubra) | Meadow Brown Gatekeeper | None | (May-Jul) |
| Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) – Can be an aggressive spreader, so keep it in pots. | Large White Green-Veined White Orange-Tip | Large White Green-Veined White Orange-Tip | Apr-May |
| Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) – Unavoidable, but we can use a dwarf variety and keep it out-of-the-way. | Small Tortoiseshell Red Admiral Comma Peacock White Ermine | Small Copper White Ermine | (Jun-Sep) |
| Bird’s-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) | Clouded Yellow Common Blue Six-Spot Burnet | Clouded Yellow Orange Tip Common Blue Six-Spot Burnet | Jun-Sep |
| Lady’s Bedstraw (Galium verum) | Hummingbird Hawk-Moth | Small Tortoiseshell Hummingbird Hawk-Moth | Jun-Sep |
| Common Ivy (Hedera helix) | Overwinter site: Comma Small Tortoiseshell Red Admiral Peacock | Large White Green-Veined White Small Copper Small Tortoiseshell Red Admiral Comma Hummingbird Hawk-Moth | Oct-Nov |
| Primrose (Primula vulgaris) | Duke of Burgundy – (luckily after the blooming season) | Speckled Wood Orange Tip Gatekeeper Duke of Burgundy Small Tortoiseshell Red Admiral Comma Peacock Ladybirds | Feb-May |
| Sweet Violet (Viola odorata) | None | Speckled Wood Small Copper Duke of Burgundy Small Tortoiseshell Peacock | Feb-May |
| Wood Spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides) | None | Duke of Burgundy Ladybirds – they need early-Spring nectar before aphid numbers rise. | Apr-Jun |
| Forget-Me-Not (Myosotis arvensis) – Definitely a spreader, but not a bully, and after flowering it shrinks into the background. | None | Orange Tip Small Copper Duke of Burgundy Small Tortoiseshell Red Admiral Peacock Comma | Apr-Jun |
| Red Campion (Silene dioica) | None | Large White Duke of Burgundy | May-Sep |
| Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) | None | Large White Green-Veined White Large Skipper Six-Spot Burnet Ladybirds | Jun-Sep |
| Wild Thyme (Thymus serpyllum) | None | Common Blue Small Copper Duke of Burgundy Small Tortoiseshell Large Skipper Ladybirds | Jun-Sep |
| Musk Mallow (Malva moschata) | None | Large White Green-Veined White Gatekeeper Small Tortoiseshell Red Admiral | Jun-Sep |
| Wild Marjoram (Origanum vulgare) | None | Common Blue Small Copper Meadow Brown Gatekeeper Small Tortoiseshell Large Skipper Six-Spot burnet White Ermine Ladybirds | Jun-Sep |
| Devil’s-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis) | None | Common Blue Meadow Brown Six-Spot Burnet Ladybirds | Jul-Oct |
| Common Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum) – Let’s find a late-blooming variety. | None | Hummingbird Hawk-Moth 22-Spot Ladybird – (mildew) | Jun-Sep Oct (some varieties) |
Rhyming Couplets 