Photo by Deborah Smith Selkow
Those are my boys up there, when they were littler. The picture was taken at our friends Deb and Stan’s house, where we had gone to collect some monarch caterpillars (there are a few in the glass jar between the boys). Stan sent me this picture on Sunday as a Mother’s Day surprise, and it was so unexpected and lovely that I had to share it. Oh, I miss those pudgy little faces!
And how lovely, too, that he sent the picture during the very week that the season’s first Monarch butterflies were reported in Connecticut. Surely they will be here in our backyard soon? (For a complete rundown of spring monarch sightings, visit JourneyNorth.)
Coincidentally, I just finished a fantastic book about butterflies. Now would be the perfect time tell you about it:
DO BUTTERFLIES BITE?
By Hazel Davies and Carol A. Butler
Rutgers University Press, 2008
Category: Nonfiction for grownups and young adults
DO BUTTERFLIES BITE? uses a question and answer format to give readers a comprehensive overview of butteflies and moths, from the basics of their biology and body plans to the complexities of their life cycles and living situations. I learned a lot in its 224 pages; for example, did you know a group of butterflies is referred to as a rabble? Or that silkworm moths—cultivated for more than 5000 years now—have lost the ability to fly? Or that citizen scientists across North America will be counting butterflies over Memorial Day weekend? (More on that here.) I can’t recommend this book highly enough; it’s an interesting read for beginning or intermediate butterfly lovers.
Happy Butterflying!