Mol­ly R Gaskin

The Pointe-a-Pierre Wild­fowl Trust is fo­cus­ing on the con­ser­va­tion of the Monarch But­ter­fly, giv­en that it is now en­dan­gered and list­ed on the IUCN Red List.

Sev­er­al but­ter­fly gar­dens have been added with the help of vol­un­teers from schools and the South Sorop­tomists.

But­ter­flies thrive where there is sun­shine, warmth and a great abun­dance of flow­er­ing shrubs and trees.

In pro­por­tion to its size, Trinidad is one of the rich­est on Earth for but­ter­flies. Our lit­tle coun­try is some 200 times more pop­u­lar than Brazil, which is the world’s largest but­ter­fly hot house.

Trinidad pos­sess­es (last known count, 1968) 617 in­dige­nous species, while To­ba­go has 123 species, many close to ex­tir­pa­tion. 10,000 species are known to ex­ist in the "New World". The pres­ence of spe­cif­ic "food plants" is of pri­ma­ry in­flu­ence on the pres­ence of but­ter­flies. A very dry sea­son, fol­lowed by heavy rain, is good for but­ter­fly breed­ing and hatch­ing.

Thus, cli­mate change is a se­ri­ous threat.

Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) feeding at the Wildfowl Trust.

The Monarch, or Sol­dier Mar­tinique, as it was called in Trinidad (Danaus plex­ip­pus mega­lippe) rang­ing from North and South Amer­i­ca and the West In­dies, is well-known in tem­per­ate coun­tries as one of the world’s great­est mi­grants. In Trinidad, its mi­gra­to­ry in­stinct is com­plete­ly lost in the rel­a­tive uni­for­mi­ty of our cli­mate, and it ex­ists here hap­pi­ly. A soli­tary fly­er here, sel­dom in large num­ber.

Monarch Butterflies on Migration from North America to Mexico.

Some com­mon plants for but­ter­flies in Trinidad are: As­cle­pias cur­ras­sav­i­ca, 'Wild Ipecacuamha', Com­mon Milk­weed, But­ter­fly and Swamp Milk­weed, flow­ers of the Cu­cum­ber and Pump­kin Plants al­so Cit­rus Trees, es­pe­cial­ly Or­ange trees. They al­so suck the juices from rot­ting or­anges, grape­fruit, and ba­nanas. 'Pois Doux' flow­ers, all the va­ri­ety of Cas­sia flow­ers, and all the Pas­si­flo­ras, to name a few."

Ref­er­ence: Mal­colm Bar­cant: DIC­TA.

Our long-stand­ing friend, Charles de Gannes, DVM is our lo­cal repos­i­to­ry of but­ter­fly in­for­ma­tion in Trinidad who still goes col­lect­ing!