Stories
Butterfly Basics, Part 1
Butterflies, one of my favorite groups of organisms to work with, are equally as complex and interesting as they are beautiful. Here are a few answers to common questions I get about them as I walk around the lodges with a jar full of stinky rotten banana butterfly bait:
Hey Phil, what are you doing with that jar full of stinky rotten bananas?
The white hairs visible here smell great. These are the pheromone-emitting androconial hairs, which in this case smell like fruit loops. Image by Phil Torres
Rotten fruit is a staple food source for a lot of butterflies (more info below), and making a rotten fruit bait to place in a trap is a great way to sample butterflies without harming them.
My recipe: 6 mashed, rotten bananas (3 with peel, 3 without), 1/4 cup of sugar, half cup of beer, and a half cup of water. Put in a jar in the sun for 3-5 days, shake and release the gas build up every morning and night. It doesn’t smell great, but butterflies love it. And it smells much better than my rotten fish bait I use as well.
Cithaerias pireta, often seen along trails in the Amazon. Image by Phil Torres
What do butterflies eat?
Just like in the rest of the world, many butterflies in the tropics feed on nectar. Nectar provides a great source of energy essential for active flying and reproduction. However, butterflies here also feed on a variety of other sources, for a variety of reasons, including mud, wet stones, feces, tree sap, rotten fallen fruit, urine, carrion, bird droppings, fungi, animal secretions, and pollen. Many of those food items provide male butterflies with the minerals and organic compounds necessary to create a pheromone, or chemical scent, to attract a female.
Additionally, the neotropics (New World tropics like Peru) are home to the only group of butterflies that have adapted the feed on protein-rich pollen, the Heliconius butterflies, giving them an advantage over many butterflies in being able to live for 2-3 months, rather than 2-3 weeks like most butterflies. Butterfly feeding is one of the many areas of their biology that hasn’t been studied thoroughly. Scientists don’t know, for example, why some butterflies prefer to feed on rotten fruit over nectar when they have similar sugar compounds.
Why do butterflies have bright colors?
In general, bright colors are used to deliver a message. That message may be for a conspecific (butterfly of the same species), showing that they are either suitable/non-suitable to mate or to let a male know they are in another male’s territory (you can wave a blue handkerchief at a male blue morpho and get a quick aggressive response).
The colors are also used as a message to predators like birds or monkeys, stating clearly: don’t eat me, I’m poisonous.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Many butterflies have evolved to tolerate poisonous plants as a caterpillar and use those toxins against predators. Birds tend to learn pretty quickly, and if a bright orange and black butterfly causes it to get sick once, it likely won’t try to eat one again. This does get complicated when butterflies that taste delicious to birds mimic the poisonous butterflies, only pretending to be toxic (called Batesian mimicry), but we’ll save that discussion for another time.
Many butterflies gather on the muddy river shore to feed on minerals in the sand. Image by Phil Torres
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The lodge is located in the middle of the forest accessible only by boat. The experience was very unique and exciting. Service is great, and the fun part are the nature activities and tours the hotel offers for free. We had an amazing tour guide that had a lot of knowledge and was fun to spend time with. The rooms are totally open to the forest which is really cool the struggle is the there is no privacy at all in between the rooms, also food was pretty basic. All together a very unique experience. Read all
This hotel is the perfect blend of comfort and hospitality, with the natural experience. The hotel is reached by a hours boat ride from Puerto Maldonado, expertly organized and accomplished. Most staff are members of the local Esa Ejja community. The food is good and plentiful. Hot water is always available and lovely bedding features mosquito nets. There is of course no air conditioning (one side wall is open in rach room) and the electricity is off for a few hours at night affecting overhead fans, so I was glad to have brought a small battery powered fan for sleeping. But the best of the experience is the wildlife. Our expert guide Oscar Mishaja introduced us to nearly 100 bird species, along with caimans, river otters, poison dart frogs and capybara. A trip of a lifetime. Read all
Excellent experience overall— really kind and welcoming staff at every point of the journey. All transfers were well organized and smooth. Excellent and educational excursions all around the rainforest. Delicious food for every meal. We had wonderful guides- Freet and Alvaro. Enjoyed our time here! Read all
We had a surreal experience at Refugio Amazonas. From the well organized transportation to the warm welcome, hospitality and the experience of living in nature - we loved it all. Huge shout out to our guide Boris who went out of his way to ensure we had a good experience and got to watch all kinds of wild life. The meals and cocktails were delicious. And even though this place is smack in the middle of the jungle there was super fast WiFi available. We made unforgettable memories. Read all
We had an amazing time in TRC. From the guide, tours, lounge staff, food and room, everything has exceeded our expectation and like an amazing dream came true. We highly recommend to directly book with the lounge website, so that you got a private guide for your group. Special thanks to our guide Saul, who made this experience extra special! We were so impressed by his knowledge about all the animals and the rainforest. Read all
We had an amazing time in TRC. From the guide, tours, lounge staff, food and room, everything has exceeded our expectation and like an amazing dream came true. This is the only lounge available in Tambopata national park, and this eco lounge takes environment seriously. We highly recommend to directly book with the lounge website, so that you got a private guide for your group. Special thanks to our guide Saul, who made this experience extra special! We were so impressed by his knowledge about all the animals and the rainforest. If you are a natural lover, you can’t miss this place Read all
Excellent and luxurious place, wonderful experience and our guide Boris was first class, he had a unique patience with my 8 year old son. An experience in the tropical rainforest that marks the life of its visitors. In addition to the scientific research that takes place in the place: a whole research center. Rooms: Very comfortable and luxuriou Read all
El mejor hotel para visitar la Amazonia peruana. Hotel eco turístico metido en medio de la selva, equipado para visitar y vivir la selva, su flora y fauna, en todas sus facetas. Todo incluido, con guías preparados y amables, resultó una experiencia increíble para mi familia. Dentro de las opciones no se debe perder el Canopy de 45 metros de altura para observar y escuchar la selva, así como el lago de las tres Chimbadas, lugar único para ver caimanes, nutrias gigantes, monos y aves exóticas. Recomiendo mínimo dos noches!!! Read all
Wunderbare lodge mit freundlichen Menschen. sehr persönliche guides, tolle Tourangebote und super kulinarische Verpflegung ! Wir wurden herzlichst von Caesar empfangen und unser guide JuanJo hat uns phantastische Dinge gezeigt. Wir können die lodge nur wärmstens empfehlen! Read all
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