Exploring Nature: Bountiful Butterflies

If you like butterflies, consider yourself lucky to live in Texas.

Our state is the undisputed national butterfly champion in terms of butterfly diversity. We have more than 450 species of butterflies in this sprawling state. Arizona is a distant second with 325 species, and New Mexico is the only other state with more than 300 species.

California has 250 and Florida has fewer than 200.

The most butterfly-rich part of the state is the lower Rio Grande Valley with some 300 species. The three south-most counties of Starr, Hidalgo and Cameron lead the way. An impressive 70 butterfly species are found in their area and nowhere else north.

Mild winters and plant diversity make this area a butterfly paradise. Some of the most common types are monarch, morning cloaks and red admirals. The monarch is probably the most watched insect in all of North America.

A plucky little flyer, it performs an outstanding continent-wide migration which gets underway this time of year.

The entire eastern North America population, tens of millions of monarchs, funnels down through Texas all the way to their over-wintering grounds in central Mexico.

Most of these fly in a 300-mile swath centered on a line running through Wichita Falls, Abilene, Austin, San Antonio and Del Rio. A second flyway runs along the Gulf Coast.

We are on the central flyway and can expect peak numbers all during September, with a peak about Oct. 6. Keep an eye out for these lovely flyers.

A few monarchs will overwinter along the Gulf Coast, but most will wind up down in Mexico. Lots of tourists visit their mountain refuge to see trees filled with roosting butterflies.

If you want to attract butterflies to your yard I’m told milkweed is a great attraction. Many plant nurseries carry tropical milkweed which is easy to grow.