There's a site that lets you search lepidoptera by host plants

8 years ago

I'll post the link below. After trying to help someone on a different thread, I discovered the Natural History Museum (actually, I've known about this museum for a long time, but I didn't know they had this amazing search tool) through google. They have a very useful search tool that will tell you what lepidoptera feed on in your area. All you have to do is enter your country, and either the plant species or the species of lepidoptera. Unfortunately you need to have the Latin (botanical) name of the lepidoptera or plant (common names not allowed). Even so, this is an extremely useful tool if you want to find out what species will feed on your plants. I hope this helps you.

National History Museum

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NHBabs z4b-5a NH

8 years ago

Thank you!

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Comments (6)

User
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I love the NHM...but unfortunately, I find this site to be confusing and not always terribly helpful). Need some better (less specific) algorithms.

How are you getting on perennialfan ?.

Also, some odd omissions - papillio machaon (swallowtails) most certainly feed on silene dioica...but not according to this database.

I also find the failure to link, within the site, to common names, particularly for moths, to be a bit of a fail. While we can agree that there is a lot of room for confusion, when using common names, I think a museum, which is purports to be inclusive, is not really offering a useful service for those of us less familiar with Latin, I know I do it myself, then have to metaphorically slap myself for being a bit of a snob when a perfectly good and often widely accepted common name has been used.

Of course, it could be me, being a total thicko.
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perennialfan275
Original Author
8 years ago
Campanula, if you just google "search butterflies by host plants" a link to the NHM site shows up. After clicking the link you just click on "search" and you're there. Since this showed up on google, I'm going to assume this is a public database. I'm sure there are better sites to use but currently this is the best one I know of. It's not perfect, but you gotta admit they have a pretty extensive database. If there's an error, maybe you should contact them. I'm sure they are updating their databases constantly.
User
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
It occurred to me that they maybe mean host plants for the caterpillars only, rather feeding as a winged insect...

soz, i rudely omitted to say thank you.
WoodsTea 6a MO
8 years ago
My main source for that type of info is the Illinois Wildflowers site, though I'm sure you know about that. It helps that I'm in Missouri, which has a lot of overlap with Illinois. It's some of the best info on faunal relationships with plants that I've found.
PRO
User
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I have been using that HOSTS database for many years and have posted results from it in this forum at least as far back as 2005 (Spike, iVillage forum versions).

The database is large but does not contain every known hostplant/insect pair. Also, there are many synonyms and reclassifications for the Latin names that I doubt the HOSTS database keeps up on.

The geographical areas to select are quite large, so you have to keep in mind that a lepidoptera or hostplant that comes up in the search may not occur or thrive in your locale.

And since it is a global database, common names for North American or USA species are not globally useful.

Hostplants apply to the plants an adult has been observed laying eggs on or that caterpillars feed on. Sometimes eggs are laid on plants that do not nourish the caterpillars, but that is unusual.