For years I have been telling people about dunking butterflies only to watch them fly away. "Hog Wash" I was told. There were even cries of Shenanigans! Well underwater butterflies are not something to joke about so my good friend Edith Smith not only went ahead and proved it, she made a video of it as well and it is awesome. You could find it at her very informative and way fun website at http://www.butterflyfunfacts.com . The video is so amazing because it is in slooow mootioon so it looks as if the butterfly is actually swimming under water. Hmm, which I guess it actually is! It eventually breaks the water surface and quite easily flies away totally unharmed. NO BUTTERFLIES WERE HARMED IN THE FLIMING OF THIS VIDEO. But butterflyfunfacts.com is loaded with a lot of really interesting and fun butterfly related stuff.
If you are little bit deeper into your pursuit of raising butterflies than you MUST, and I said MUST, visit http://www.raisingbutterflies.org/ . I recently had the honor of spending some time in the field with the owner Todd Stout and trust me he is an encyclopedia of knowledge and just dying to share it with you. Just out of the blue in two different states that he is not familiar with , Todd took me to two parking lots and actually found butterflies and hibernacula everywhere. If you however want to take your back porch rearing methods to the next level then you really need to visit raisingbutterflies.org. I am not talking about just putting a fist full of leaves into a deli container and hoping for the best. Todd covers everything from separating eggs to overwintering strategies and just about everything in between. The site could easily be a text book but it just too enjoyable to navigate as your knowledge seems to double with each page. The nice part is that it is written in such a way that anyone can understand and enjoy the context.