Gossamers

Pollinators are the jewelry of a well-planted garden, and our Gossamers are the winged ones. They are the Butterflies, Skippers, and Moths (order Lepidoptera) that carry pollen bloom to bloom. Butterflies (superfamily Papilionoidea) fly by day on slender bodies and clubbed antennae; Skippers (family Hesperiidae) are butterflies too, the stout quick ones, darting between flowers with a hooked flick of the antenna; Moths, by far the largest group, mostly work the night shift, and you can tell them by the antenna, threadlike or feathered but never clubbed. Some are homebodies living entire lives in a single Delaware meadow. Others, like the Monarch (Danaus plexippus), are travelers that cross a continent and bet their lives on our backyards, roadsides, and salt marshes being in bloom when they arrive. One of the best things any of us can do is plant to make nectar, pollen, and host habitat for our Gossamer friends.