Can Butterflies see Colors? What's their favorite??

Hi, Everybody--

I'm beginning to obsess about butterflies in the garden and I was wondering if anyone knows if butterflies (I'm mainly interested in Swallowtails and Monarchs) are attracted to one color over another?

I am looking at Zinnias and wondering if the bright colors are better than the mauves, lavenders and pinks. Same thing for monardas. etc., etc. Some different zinnia's from Renee's Seeds:

http://www.reneesgarden.com/seeds/seeds-hm/flowersT.htm#zin

I guess I just assumed they liked red, but maybe not?

Your thoughts, please, O Wise Ones?! Thanks. t.

From my butterfly book, it says that not only do they seen in color, but they see way more than we do. Some flowers and plants put off flourescent colors that the human eye can't see but they can. It's like a colorful, fluorescent runway for them. Someone on DG recommended a book that I ordered and it has been very informative. It's called The Lifecycle of Butterflies by Judy Burris & Wayne Richards. I highly recommend it. I haven't read anything about color preference. But the book has all of their host and nectar preferences. It depends on the swallowtail. Eastern Blacks prefer butterfly bush and orange butterfly weed. Giant swallowtails like butterfly bush, coneflowers and sunflowers. Pipevine swallowtails like butterfly bush, mexican sunflower, swamp milkweed and tall garden phlox. Spicebush swallowtails like butterfly bush, coneflowers, lantana, and sunflower. Tiger swallowtails like coneflowers, mexican sunflowers and petunias. And Zebra swallowtails like cosmos, milkweed, sweet william and zinnias. Monarchs like orange butterfly weed. That should be enough to point you in the right direction. Have fun! I've started studying them over the last year and this year I'm raising them intentionally. It has been great fun! Enjoy...they are so amazing and beautiful!

Thanks, greenie,

The authors of your book live close to me and have a beautiful butterfly garden. Good book, too.

I do have lots of butterfly host plants and nectaring flowers but it's time to replant some of them and when I have choices, I am wondering whether to opt for the strong reds/yellows or the mauves/purples/lavenders for the nectar flowers..

Since my first post I have googled a bit and I have found references to butterflies' ability to see ultraviolet light. I don't quite know how that translates into flower colors though.

When I look at the list of nectar flowers it seems like many are in the lavender range and so I may be mistaken in my first guess that they like the color red. Oh, well.

Have fun with your BF project. t.

Here's an interesting page on UV flower color and how it works with butterflies.

http://webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/17C.html

http://www.cladonia.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=315&Itemid=125

A summary of a Butterflies vision ability from the Foremost Insurance Butterfly House site:

"Butterflies have large, compound (multifaceted) eyes, which allow them to see in all directions without turning their heads. Like most insects, butterflies are very nearsighted, so they are more attracted to a large stand of flowers rather than individual plants. Butterflies do not "see" colors such as red, green, and yellow, but sense polarized light, which indicates the direction the sun is shining, as well as ultraviolet light, which is present on many flowers and guides butterflies to nectar sources. "

It appears from google-ing around that butterflies select their nectaring flowers from the ultraviolet range of colors and patterns on the flowers. (Although I have seen some mention on the internet of butterflies liking purples and lavenders/pinks and other writers say red.) I am not clear how ultraviolet light works--whether lavenders, purples and pinks are closer to the ultraviolet range of color or ?...

This topic needs more research and someone with an ultraviolet lens on their camera to make a good explanation!




This message was edited May 26, 2007 7:06 PM

Hi greenie and tabasco-
Cool topic! greenie, what's the 1st book that you referred to? The one that mentions the Butterflies seeing colors?

Thanks for the info! :)

~Adrienne

Same book. =)

By my observations, which really doesn't mean much, they seem to be most attracted to pinks, lavenders and blues, with blue being the winner in my garden.
They will sit for a long time on the blue mist flower.
However, I think they will take whatever they can get at the moment.
Josephine.

My observations would be purple and orange with the least colors being yellow and white. They love the purple butterfly bush and orange lantana. They loved the pink zinnias I had last year too.

Tabasco,

I am certain I read in a book -- and I've gotten all the books our library has to offer -- that Yellow is their favorite. It shows up to them as a fluorescent shiny color. Something like that. :)

I still have a couple books here and can look it up this weekend.

Suzy

I really think it is a matter of the nectar a flower produces, rather than color being the main attractor. The females can sense their host plants from a mile away...not by color. For instance, there are yellow flowers that look almost exactly like each other, however one has nectar that butterflies can not resist, and the other will only attract bees. So to us color has become very important for garden appeal, but to butterflies....not the main thing at all. Their senses are much more sophisticated than simple color judgement.

Honestly, the only way I could trust knowing which nectar plants to install in my garden, was to watch them. In one day 21+ butterfly species came through here and lingered longer than I have ever known them to. The nectar they all came for happened to be Amblyolepsis setigera... Now that Texas Mist is in bloom, many of them are drawn to that for long sessions. Zinnias, any color or variety will attract most of the nectar feeders, even hummers. Duranta is also a stand up player in the butterfly/hummer garden. Of course Buddleia rates well... again, any color. If visual does play a part it would possibly be in terms of infrared caloric heat given off by the plants. Still, this is something invisible to our naked eyes.

I am pretty sure it is something invisible to us that lures them in... The only visibility would be from observing which plants they move toward and drink of on a consistant basis.


:-Deb

I read an article that this scientist hypothesized a link between wing color and butterfly vision. She thought the same genes that make the wing color may produce the filtering parts of their eyes, which determines the colors the butterfly sees. This would cause them to nectar from the flower colors they can see, which would also decrease compettion for one kind of plant, or one color.
This made a lot of sense to me...that they don't all have the same preference or can see the same colors. But, I don't have enough different kinds of bfs to know.
Deb, that's interesting about the 2 yellow plants, but only 1 was chosen.

This message was edited May 26, 2007 4:04 PM

Hi, Everyone--

Well, I haven't been able to find any definitive answer on the color question, but I have come across several sites created by students who are studying pollination and color in butterflies with some interesting photos.

I have edited my Post #3534701 (2:18 p.m.) above to add the sites that go into some depth on ultra-violet light, pollination guides, and butterflies 'vision'.

It appears that butterflies don't see much range of color available to human eyes but rather rely mostly on the ultraviolet spectrum present in many flowers. Information on exactly which flowers have strong ultra-violet coloring isn't readily found on the internet although a few sites make an attempt to photograph flowers with an ultraviolet lens to reveal which blooms are the best for butterfly pollination. (see the post above.) That is, yes, we know coneflowers in general are favorites of butterflies, but with all the new cultivars, which ones have the most ultra-violet coloration?? I haven't found that info.

One point the sites all made was that butterflies are incredibly nearsighted, so that what ever flower you decide to plant you should plant masses of it. The butterflies see out of the sides of their eyes and can detect the flicker of flourescence and the UV color and that will guide them to your garden. If you have a jumble of flowers (like I have) they have a hard time making out what it is.

Also, this is interesting--BFs don't readily see the color green. Only when they are ready to lay eggs do they detect green. (I think this bears more research, though.)

The other variable on nectar flowers is the fragrance. Apparently butterflies have strong olfactory senses--so maybe it's not so much the color but the fragrance sometimes. Of course, again, it may not be the same fragrance that a human nose picks up.

Anyway, that's all I've discovered google-ing this afternoon. I may ask my son to let me research on his (pass word protected) university library site...this seems to be a topic not well- developed on the ordinary public web sites... an interesting one for the butterfly gardener, though.

Yes very interresting T!
That explaines quite a bit to me.. As I was thinking the white colored Zennias were more attracvtive than the red ones.. why? And the white nicotianna more than pink. I was also thinking it had something to do with the certain fragrance. When the white blossoms on the Privet were blooming all kinds of butterflies came through as if it were a runway, then sailed right for the Butterfly Daisies after that. The Privet was so strong, my DD Jackie said she could smell it when she got off the bus around the block. She liked the fragrance, though I thought it got nausiating at times.
Last year I had only 3 colors of Buddleia, Nano Blue, Nano Purple, and White Profussion. this year I added 4 new colors and will make note of which one is most popular to who. Something tells me it is the overall nectar of the Buddleia in general that they find appetizing. Furthermore, green... what would distinguish one green from another... a scent the leaves emmit? Then they set feet and detecting parsley a BST begins to oviposit emmediatly. Same with TST, she went around standing on all the plants after she discovered and oviposited on the cherry tree. Very interresting~
It may just be more smell than sight, a certain somthin somthin, only the butterfly can pick up on the radar with their antennae.. then taste with their feet, then drink with their proboscus, (or lay eggs).

This is a wonderful thread, T! Thanks for creating it! Very interesting and puzzling at the same time.

I do believe it is scent that is the biggest draw for butterflies. But I am sure that flower color plays an important part in visually locating a nectar plant. And nectar production of course plays the biggest part of a Butterfly's choice. Something else that I have found interesting ..... in the dog days of summer, the most heat and drought tolerant plants are what the butterflies always go for. I water the more tender plants so they don't wilt, but they get very little traffic even with nice healthy blooms.

Seems hummers are very attracted to red flowers. Butterflies on the other hand like yellow, white, and more pastel colors. Though orange and purple are also favorites. And bees will return to the same plant day after day for the bloom period of that plant, before they move on to another type of plant. They mark the flowers somehow with a scent that keeps other bees away.

This is far more complicated than we probably can imagine. But it sure does sound like a good research project for a university. :-)

Well, becky, from what I have just read on the net, after a bloom is pollinated, some flowers change the UV colors of their pollen producing parts and stop producing much nectar. The UV color change is the signal to other BFs and Bees that the flower is now in another stage of development (seed making?) and the BFs go elsewhere to find nectar.

The eyes of rudbeckias, leucanthemums, zinnias and certain coreopsis (and others) have very intense UV coloration in the flower eye and many believe that masses of these 'dancing dots' catch the BFs attention (since they can spot dark UV objects (the flower centers plus some of the UV coloration on the petals) and flouresence on the petals (a sort of sparkle) but can't make out patern from a distance.) Some daisy type blooms have the UV coloration in less intensity on the petals spreading out from the eyes (where the reproduction parts are, of course, and this guides the BF to the pollen).

It may be that your xeriscape-type plants are conditioned to continue to produce nectar and be pollinated in heat and drought while your more tender plants are stressed in the heat and stop nectar production and have a UV color change.

Anyway, I am no expert, but have enjoyed google-ing the above info. It does sound like research is just getting underway on this topic and there is much to be confirmed and discovered yet....

I wonder if anyone has a UV filter on their camera? We could make groundbreaking news with this topic research while we are enjoying (obsessing?) over our BF gardens!