Few flowering plant species would go extinct, but almond growers would have much less secure pollination services from native bees. Now it would be sad to lose all 19,000 species of butterflies, and a fair number of specialized flowers would go extinct.

There’s a strong link between colours commonly seen in today’s flowers and colours bees can best detect. Flowers fill our world with beautiful colour. They evolved that way to attract efficient pollinators — bees, which feed exclusively on nectar and pollen, and birds, some of which, like honeyeaters, feed on nectar.

They pollinate plants in your garden When they do this their bodies collect pollen and carry it to other plants. This helps fruits, vegetables and flowers to produce new seeds. The majority of plants need pollinators like bees and butterflies to reproduce.

Butterfly Garden Flowers

• Phlox. Phlox is a low-growing, spreading plant that forms a blanket of blooms all summer.
• Coneflower (Echinacea) Coneflower is one of the best flowers for attracting butterflies.
• Lantana.
• Bluestar (Amsonia hubrichtii)
• Pot Marigolds.
• Black-Eyed Susan.
• Blazing Star Flowers (Liatris spicata)
• Heliotrope.

Add nectar plants, including aster, black-eyed Susan, butterfly bush, butterfly weed, cosmos, ironweed, Joe-Pye weed, phlox, purple coneflower, sedum, and zinnia. Include food plants for the larvae, including dill, fennel, milkweed, and parsley.

A: No, but butterflies should still be handled carefully, said Matthew Reetz, executive director of the Madison Audubon Society, which organizes monarch butterfly tagging. The idea that just touching a butterfly’s wings will cause it to die is an old wives’ tale, Reetz said.

Butterflies have the best chance of survival if you set them free, rather than trying to keep them indoors. If it’s cold outside or you simply want to observe them for a few days, you can keep them inside for a bit. Put them in a huge jar with several sticks, and feed them the sugar solution detailed in the next step.