tour of butterfly Gardens

Today members of our crew visited the marvelous Hallberg Butterfly Gardens, a beautiful site whose wide variety of plants attract butterflies and host caterpillars. We learned much about our ship's namesake, including these facts:

• A butterfly makes a chrysalis, which means it sheds its skin to reveal another skin, whereas a moth builds a cocoon out of silk thread.
  
• The only sure difference between a moth and a butterfly are that butterflies have little round balls at the end of their antennae, whereas moths' antennae are straight.
  
• Eastern Monarchs migrate to Mexico over 4 generations of butterflies, which means they must find their host plant, milkweed, along the way. 
• There are different types of milkweed, and it is important to plant the kind native to an area.