Butterflies: a feast for more than eyes

< p > < strong > Sandy, Bedfordshire < /strong > What are they tasting, and what makes them dab their egg on one particular leaf above all others? < /p > < p > Day by day, summer has been eating its way through the nasturtium at the back door. Over the past fortnight, I have conducted my own leafwatch. Victorian naturalists used systematic, meticulous, studies to gain insights: I ’m looking in my lunch break. Even so, during these half-hour snatches, I’ve discovered a tiny something that contradicts an authoritative textbook. < /p > < p > We call them cabbage whites, the butterflies with a taste for brassicas, but these insects have a fondness for < a href="http://garden.org/ediblelandscaping/?page=august_edible" > nasturtiums < /a > too. One flits over the fence and breaks its zigzag course through the garden to home in. It circles and lands on leaf after leaf, wings whipped into a frenzy at the point of exact touchdown. < /p > < a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/28/butterflies-a-feast-for-more-than-eyes-country-diary" > Continue reading... < /a >
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Butterflies Insects Wildlife Environment Biology UK news Source Type: news