(Rodger Whitlock) wrote in message ...
On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 07:52:48 +0000 (UTC), mbb wrote:

My young sons' school has an (almost) surrounded quadrangle garden, a simple
lawned area with 3 or 4 mature buddlejas, a neglected pond, and some other
herbaceous beds.

I'm told that it's a pleasant area, but "the bushes don't encourage
butterflies". I know it's a subjective opinion, but might it be true? Are
there situations where the buddleja doesn't attract butterflies? Or is it
the local geography, perhaps?

Only adult butterflies feed on buddleias. They must have other
vegetation around. And they like a source of water. Remember that
butterfly larvae often have quite narrow food preferences -- our
black swallowtails, for example, are limited to various
Compositae (Asteraceae).

Fill up those herbaceous beds with a wide variety of material,
make sure the pond has a splash of water in it, and you might be
surprised.

Your black swallowtail caterpillars are not limited to Compositae. In
fact they are far more likly to be using umbellifers.

They are closely related to (and will hybridise with) our British
Swallowtail which in the wild uses only Marsh Hog's Fennel a.k.a Milk
Parsely but which will take other composites and reportedly Rutaceae
in captivity.

--
Neil Jones- http://www.butterflyguy.com/
"At some point I had to stand up and be counted. Who speaks for the
butterflies?" Andrew Lees - The quotation on his memorial at Crymlyn
Bog National Nature Reserve