THERE’S A NEW RESOURCE FOR BUTTERFLY (AND MOTH) GARDENS

Butterflies get all the attention because of their beauty, but moths actually do 95% of the pollinating among Lepidoptera, and they are as important to agriculture as they are to pollinating native plants, said UC Riverside ecology grad student Christopher Cosma, who is studying how climate change is affecting moths and their plant interactions. These fragile pollinators are threatened by “death from a thousand cuts,” he said, including habitat destruction, herbicides and pesticides, and when we lose butterflies and moths, it’s not just pollination at stake. We also lose the primary food source — caterpillars — for many of our songbirds.

So in the interest of helping everyone survive, Cosma has created a website to help people choose the best native plants for the Lepidoptera that live in their ZIP Codes. Just enter your street address at ctcosma.shinyapps.io /the_butterfly_net to get a list of at least 10 native plants that best support the butterflies and moths in your area.