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HomeSmart Art Kids Mural #13

Mural #13: Bountiful Butterflies
By Beka Butts 

Butterfly Mural

This mural depicts four types of butterflies found in North Carolina (Monarch, Swallowtail, Buckeye and Gulf Fritillary).

 

How many butterflies do you see? (Don’t forget to check the other walls on this building!)

How many of them are flying and how many are resting?

Why do you think the Swallowtail is called that? Hint: What is this bird called?swallow 
How many “eyes” (spots) does the Buckeye butterfly have?


Read a Book

Read about butterflies at the Pleasure Island branch library.


 
New Hanover County Public Library - LS2 PAC (tlcdelivers.com)



See Butterflies Locally


You can learn more about the butterflies and the plants they eat at the New Hanover County Arboretum (6206 Oleander Drive).

You can see butterflies up close at the Butterfly House in Airlie Gardens (300 Airlie Rd).  New butterflies are released during the season.

(Butterfly Releases - Airlie Gardens
)


Learn more about butterflies 

Learn more about Monarch Butterflies by clicking the link below to Amazing Animals by National  Geographic Kids.

Monarch Butterflies

A-Want to know something amazing? Butterflies taste their food with their feet!

E-An exciting adventure would be to watch butterflies released into the Butterfly House at Airlie Gardens.

I-The most interesting thing about butterflies is that they go from a creepy crawly caterpillar to a beautiful flittering butterfly.

O-Ooh – did you know there are almost 18,000 types of butterflies around the world? 175 of them are in North Carolina

U-To understand more – check out the book at the Pleasure Island public library

Did You Know?

Butterflies go through four stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed plants because the larva need to eat them. Adult Monarchs will travel thousands of miles for winter.  It will be their children and grandchildren that return to North Carolina.

Both Monarchs and Swallowtails eat plants that make them taste bad to predators.

The NC Wildlife Foundation is working on a “Butterfly Highway” to create a network of native flowering plants to support butterflies, bees, and birds.

The NC Aquariums and other conservation leaders have planted over 1000 bluestem plants to help preserve the Crystal Skipper butterfly, which is only found along a 30-mile stretch of the NC coastline.


About the Artist

Read about mural artist Beka Butts
by clicking on her picture.