7th June Butterfly Education and Awareness Day (B.E.A.D)

The Association for Butterflies is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the welfare of butterflies through conservation, research, education, and support to professional butterfly farmers. In an effort to raise public awareness about the benefits and necessity of butterfly conservation, the AFB hereby declared the first Saturday of June as Butterfly Education and Awareness Day (BEAD) in the hope that the creation of an international day to celebrate butterflies would promote the importance and joy of butterfly gardening and habitat creation/restoration.

If we deepen our understanding and appreciation for butterflies, we can become advocates for their well-being and work towards creating a more butterfly-friendly world.

Butterflies play an important part when it comes to flowers due to their pollinating capabilities. Pollen collects on the body of the butterfly and is transferred onto the flower that it next encounters, spreading the pollen and thus continuing the cycle of pollination. Butterflies are attracted to bright colours such as red, yellow, orange, pink and purple blossoms so if you want butterflies to visit your garden you need to plant flowers such as lavender and buddleia.

Fun facts about butterflies:

• A group of these insects might be called a “flutter of butterflies

• These insects taste with their feet

• These winged creatures can see UV light and have 6,000 lenses in their eyes

• The planet has more than 165,000 known species of butterflies on every continent except Antarctica

Educator's Domain have put together a set of activities that can be used to celebrate this day and of course it is time for a display of butterfly books so students read to increase their knowledge of butterflies. There are so many beautiful books. See here.