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Re: air shows




Nick Routledge at fellowservant@yahoo.com wrote:
> if we know a
> butterfly's host plant, and we also know its favorite nectar plant, then
> shazzam, weez perhaps got ourselves two plants in the same "guild". Or
> take two butterflies with different larval hosts, but which favor the same
> nectar plant. Shazzam, perhaps three plants in the same guild. The
> butterfly, the connector.

Fantastic! The hardest part of guild design is understanding which
connections are the functional and important ones, and you've pointed out a
key link. 

I assume  adult butterflies lay eggs directly on the larval food plants, not
adult food species... what an interesting memory the butterflies must have,
going back to their "first birth plants" (talk about born again, butterflies
do it twice!) to spawn, but not to eat.

In "Gaia's Garden" I wrote a bit about the importance of general insect
habitat: mulch, protective shrubs and other plants, dead brush, rocks, etc;
and I listed insectary plants, but I missed this nice story. Now I'm hungry
to go a step further and make these key links between young and adult. I
wonder how much is known about the food requirements of all the different
instars and larval stages of bugs. And then there are those with aquatic
larvae and landlubber adults.

Perhaps a further connection is to add plants to attract birds that prey on
the larval or adult butterfly, if there are enough butterflies to withstand
specific predators (obviously they'll get some random predation). Now we've
got a guild that spans 3 trophic (food web) levels, with the many possible
interconnections that brings. Food for thought (sorta literally)

Martha <MABOYD5@aol.com> wrote:

> I am only partway into it, but Stephen Buchmann and Gary Nabhan's 1996 book
> The Forgotten Pollinators may be of interest.

Hey Nick--I've got "Forgotten Pollinators" and can loan it to you when you
get back here--I recommend it to all. And your posts are a real pleasure!

Toby 
_____________________________________________
For a look at my new book on ecological gardening,
Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, visit
http://www.chelseagreen.com/Garden/GaiasGarden.htm