Butterfly Deity

Yesterday we went on a butterfly walk in the Arboretum led by the illustrious Art Shapiro. Professor Shapiro is a cult figure here; he is probably the best naturalist on campus, and traipses around his 11 butterfly study sites in central California every two weeks his only means of transport being graduate students who have been recruited as chauffeurs.

It was a gentle walk through the Arb and the family student housing garden plots to the southeast. He sees a tiny thing flitting at eight paces. “Acmon blue”. No binoculars, no net or anything. We also were introduced to the butterfly-lord technique of catching butterflies — hand goes slowly out, middle fingers scissored, and snag! — butterfly gets pinned between two fingers. My favorite butterfly learned on the walk — the pygmy blue, which is indeed tiny. And who knew that perennial pepperweed (Lepidium latifolium), which is a noxious invasive weed in California, is an excellent butterfly host and is in fact edible, in an arrugula sort of way.