Butterfly Show & Tell

On 28 July 2012 Saturday, we are invited by NParks to give a Butterfly Garden Show and Tell segment  at Pasir Ris Park, Carpark C. There are about 30 kids and 10 adults from KidsRead Simei, and they all enjoyed the tour. 

Here are the notes: 

1. Characteristics of A Butterfly

- What is the difference between a moth and a butterfly?

2. Life Cycle of A Butterfly

3. Identifying Some Common Butterflies

*Do you know you can find them at parks, gardens, forests, mangroves, and even your balcony as long as there are their food and host plants? So anyone can create a butterfly garden to attract them and encourage them to reproduce.

In our garden, you can find these species more commonly:

- Peacock Pansy / Plain Tiger / Common Tiger / Blue Grassy Tiger / King Crow / Mottled Emigrant / Lime


We even see the huge Atlas Moth caterpillars quite often and they are eating up the leaves of our adrisia trees.

4. What Do Butterflies Feed On?

They use proboscis that acts as a straw to drink nectar or drink anything that can dissolve in water. They mostly feed on nectar from flowers but also eat tree sap, dung, pollen, rotting fruit or river banks. They are attracted to sodium found in salt and sweat. This is why they sometimes even land on our sweaty hands!

Host plants for caterpillars - some examples are:

Milkweed, Crown flower, Lime, Seven golden candlesticks.

Food / nectar plants for butterflies - examples are:

Snakeweed, Lantana, Ixora, Butterfly plant, String bush. 

That day, we also had a bunch of hardworking NUS students (from Youth Enterprise) who volunteered their help with weeding, digging beds, mixing soil and moving the huge tree log. A big thank you to you and the other volunteers who also showed up. We need more young people to step forward and change this world. Please continue to lend us support on weekends to make our gardens beautiful. Contact Grant if you wish to join us.