Males guard vantage points and drive out intruding males. Only males group around edges of water puddles. Puddling helps to replenish sodium salts spent during the mating process. Butterflies are unable to fly if they are too cold. Thus, some butterflies spend up to 80 percent of the day resting in a sunny spot to absorb the sun's energy in the form of flight enabling heat.
Butterflies seek out protected spots to spend the night.
A favorite roost is the underside of a leaf in a dense thicket or tree. Each stage has special food and environmental needs. Providing the right host plant in your garden is the most important step in creating a butterfly garden. Depending on the species, the life cycle of a butterfly may take anywhere from about one month to an entire year. Butterflies may have one, two or even more broods per year.