‘Beauty personified’ is all that comes to mind when one talks about these little bundles of colour and beauty. Often referred to as flying flowers, there is more to a butterfly than what the eye can see. We learn about butterflies in school and how they suck nectar from the flower they choose to sit and show their elegant beauty on. Nature truly displays its best in the uniqueness that is seen in butterflies and the way they live. Worldwide, there are more than 28,000 species of butterflies, with about 80 percent found in tropical regions. Coffee plantations are Nature’s butterfly parks in the wild.

Join Dr. Anand Titus Pereira and his wife Geeta Nanaiah Pereira as they introduce you to the wonderful world of butterflies and be amazed at what these captures teach you about the flying flowers. 

Butterflies are attracted to brightly colored, fragrant flowers and feed on nectar produced by the flowers. As the butterflies travel from one flower to another, they pollinate the plants, resulting in further development of plant species. Numerous plants rely on pollinators, such as butterflies, for reproduction.

Butterflies are extremely susceptible to pesticides and insecticides. By not requiring the use of harmful chemical applications, native habitats not only provide a safe haven for butterflies, but also for other creatures as well.

Many butterflies can taste with their feet to find out whether the leaf they sit on is good to lay eggs on to be on to be their caterpillars’ food or not. Here is a picture of a butterfly sitting underneath a leaf surface.

If it wasn’t for the opaque outline around the wings, the average observer might not see one perched on a leaf or flower. Adult glass wing butterflies will often migrate great distances, and males of the species are known gather in large groups for the purpose of competitive mating displays.

Butterflies are especially sensitive to climate change, such as pollution and habitat loss. It causes them to be more responsive than birds, plants and other species with longer life cycles. Therefore, an abundance of butterflies usually indicates a healthier ecosystem.

Millions of shingle like overlapping scales give butterfly wings their colour. Butterflies are still able to fly if their scales are removed, they are just less colourful!

Butterflies pollinate about 75 per cent of staple crops in the world and 80 per cent of all flowering plants. The economic value of pollination is about $ 200 billion.

Few are aware of the crucial role the butterfly plays in pollination of a large portion of economically important crops and flowering plants, which is second only to the honeybee. Butterflies provide aesthetic appeal and are connected with all plants and crops at all stages of their life cycle.

Butterflies inside shade coffee have been widely used by ecologists as model organisms to study the impact of habitat loss and fragmentation, and climate change.

Butterflies are indicators of a healthy environment and healthy ecosystems. There are many reasons why butterflies are important, as quality of life indicators inside the Coffee Ecosystem.

Butterflies can provide a rich source of food to predators such as birds or mice. They play an important role in ecosystems, acting as a pollinator, a food source and an indicator of the ecosystem’s well being.

Dr. Anand Titus Pereira has Ph.D. in Microbiology. His wife, Geeta Nanaiah Pereira has a M.S. degree in Horticulture from the Oklahoma State University, U.S.A. This Husband and Wife team own a model coffee farm on the foot hills of the Western Ghats in India. Incidentally, the Western Ghats is recognized the world over as one among the 18 hotspots of the world known for its biodiversity. Their ultimate goal is to protect this rare habitat. They have worked diligently on sustainable technologies for the past 25 years and have come out with various practical recommendations which are of great benefit to the coffee farmer’s worldwide. They periodically present lectures on the intrinsic value of shade grown coffee and are committed in protecting the Planet from man made abuse.