I “journeyed” out of my cocoon this week, all the way across town to the Grand Rapids (MI) Frederick Meijer Gardens, where the annual “Butterflies Are Blooming” event was in full sway. Touted as the “largest temporary tropical butterfly exhibition in the nation,” it is, indeed, a rite of spring no one should miss. Just when the grey and frozen world feels interminable, you get your ticket into the huge tropical conservatory, and are transported.

The lush smell of moist earth is what always hits me first. I pause for a few deep, delighted lungsful. Then I give my eyes the inestimable treat of seeing...green! Everywhere! What a balm, after months of a midwestern winter. Just 12 miles from home, I can reach a place offering 85 degrees and 70 percent humidity. Oh, yes.

The effect is so profound that going there always takes on the feel of a pilgrimage to me. Indeed, I assigned these hours to myself as an “Artist Date” in the Julia Cameron tradition proposed in her book, The Artist’s Way. I like going into the conservatory any time, but it’s even more special during the butterfly event in March and April. Over 60 species from Asia, Africa, and Central & South America are free to roam in a delightful kaleidoscope of color and movement.

Butterflies fascinate me. They seem so unfettered, so whimsical and free. They all have two pairs of large wings covered with colorful, iridescent scales in overlapping rows. I enjoy knowing that the word “Lepidoptera,” as butterflies and moths are classified, comes from Greek for "scales" (lepidos) and "wing" (ptera), and that no other insects have scaly wings.

I know that many people dislike watching caterpillars wreak havoc on plants, and I understand the inclination to push back. Of course, there needs to be some balance. Encourage your friends and neighbors to pause, though, before doing spring clean-up so that nature’s plan as written in the many lives held in suspense among your leaf litter isn’t disrupted by removing vital habitat too early. Otherwise it can be very challenging for our planetary co-inhabitants to survive mankind’s version of a well-groomed landscape!

One thing you can do to encourage butterflies to populate your own backyard is to do thoughtful planting. Providing sources of nectar (they only sip their food, through their long curly proboscis) and also installing host plants for other stages of the life cycle yields your own butterfly show, in season. Please also re-think using pesticides...they kill indiscriminately. The butterflies will pay you back by pollinating your surroundings, while offering sweet entertainment with their flittering, colorful presence.

Here’s what captures my imagination most: the life cycle. From its egg (often laid on a leaf), a caterpillar larva hatches. Its first meal is its own eggshell. As the caterpillar grows, it chows almost constantly on leaves or flowers, molting its old skin many times until it increases up to several thousand times in size. Next is the resting stage when it’s known as a pupa and all sorts of magic happens. Did you know that a butterfly caterpillar generates a chrysalis, while a moth caterpillar entering the same stage generates a cocoon for this stage?

During the first couple days of living in the chrysalis or cocoon, the caterpillar's enzymes eat the caterpillar itself. Bit by bit, this process unlocks the information from the caterpillar's cells as the caterpillar turns itself into a soupy, liquid substance. As one entomologist said, “It’s the construction of a butterfly or moth from caterpillar soup.” The butterfly's organs, wings, antennae, and legs form inside the chrysalis. It happens fast, often within a week.

Once the parts are formed, the chrysalis turns dark and the new little creature pushes with its feet until it comes out, its wings soft and droopy. It takes about an hour for the blood to circulate through the wings, helping them stand up dry and ready for its maiden voyage. True metamorphosis.

When my daughter was little, she found several monarch butterfly chrysalises (or, chrysalides) and we put them in a terrarium to watch what would happen. Awe is the word for it, to see a butterfly emerge! Of course, we sent our monarchs on their way as soon as their wings filled with blood and dried. We released them to the world, and they headed off. I always wonder if they ever made it to their winter home in Mexico...

Sources:

enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/allabout
askdruniverse.wsu.edu/2015/04/06/caterpillar-soup
meijergardens.org