Cotton plants in the butterfly garden will include the Gray Hairstreak, formerly known as Strymon melinus (Huebner).
'The young caterpillars bore into the flowers and fruits of their hosts. Older larvae mnay feed on leaves of Desmodium, Vicia, Phaseolus, Lespedeza, Trifolium, MaLva, and Gossypium, and many others. Adult nectar sources are winter cress, dogbane, milkweed, mints, white sweet clover, tick trefoils and goldenrod.'
(Butterflies East of the Great Plains, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984)
RearingS. melinus in a butterfly house could produce a population accustomed to Gossypium, which would be of value in omega-3 metabolism studies.
