Making Friends with Butterflies

Summer 1998

[TEXT ARCHIVE WEB-PUBLISHED MARCH 2002.
ORIGINAL PRINT PUBLICATION DATE: SUMMER 1998.]

Making Friends with Butterflies

By Jill Riddell

Visit a live exhibit.

At the Field Museum's "Living Colors: A Buttefly Garden" exhibit, there are 55 species of local, living butterflies on display in a screened-in area with native plants outside the Museum's north entrance. The exhibit runs through September 3, 2001. Open every day, 9:00-5:00. Admission to the exhibit is $4 for adults, $2 for children. Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, (312) 922-9410.

The Chicago Academy of Sciences has a continuous display of free-flying Illinois butterflies in a 2,700-square-foot greenhouse in its new home, The Nature Museum, at Fullerton and Cannon Drive along the Chicago lakefront. The Academy will also undertake the challenge of breeding certain rare species in captivity to help re-establish populations at natural areas in the Chicago region, (773) 549-0606. Take a trip with a field guide.

Butterfly guides abound — here are the best.

You may need both the Peterson and Audubon guides, as they have different strengths; between the two you should be able to identify most of what you find. Also, the relatively new "Butterflies Through Binoculars" offers a wonderful breakthrough in butterfly observation. Emphasizing features that can be seen on living butterflies floating around in the real world rather than on mounted specimens, the book brings butterfly watching one step closer to bird watching. All that's needed is a pair of binoculars capable of focusing five or six feet away.

Peterson Field Guides: Eastern Butterflies. By Paul A. Opler and Vichai Malikul.
National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies. By Robert Michael Pyle.
Butterflies Through Binoculars: A Field Guide to Butterflies in the Boston-New York- Washington Region. By Jeffrey Glassberg. Much of it is applicable to our area. A new version for a larger area that will include ours (called Butterflies Through Binoculars: The East) is expected soon.

For inquiring minds

"Prevalence of Remnant-Dependence Among Prairie Inhabiting Insects of the Chicago Region." By R. Panzer, D. Stillwaugh, R. Gnaedinger, G. Derkovitz. Natural Areas Journal, Vol. 15, 1995. pp. 101-116. This article covers the species of butterflies in the Chicago region that depend on prairies and savannas. "Effectiveness of A Vegetation-Based Approach to Insect Conservation." By Ron Panzer. Conservation Biology, Vol. 12, 1998. pp. 693-702. This article demonstrates statistically that land managers who rely heavily on plant conservation efforts often end up doing a good job protecting insects as well.

Become a volunteer butterfly monitor.

Volunteers are trained in identification and monitoring techniques. The ideal monitor would be someone who already has a general knowledge of the most common kinds of butterflies, though it doesn't take long to learn them. Contact The Nature Conservancy for information, (312) 346-8166.