Rediscovering Marikina 1: WOB

Compared to the place I remembered visiting as a child, Marikina is almost unrecognizable to me now, in a positive kind of way. The streets are clean, its people are disciplined. More than that, Marikina has a lot more to offer-places to explore, a culture to experience.

My work has given me the chance to visit one of the city’s tourist destinations: World of Butterflies, run by the local government of Marikina. WOB’s main goal is to conserve the habitat of the butterflies. Aside from its butterfly garden, it is also a sanctuary for breeding them. Here, one can see the different stages of a butterfly’s life cycle.

Among the insects, butterflies have one of the most complicated life cycles. And unlike the other creatures under Class Insecta, they do not undergo a nymph period before becoming an adult; instead, a butterfly changes appearance when it becomes an imago. So, there’s no such thing as baby butterfly.

Did you know that butterflies are indicators of pollution? If a place is polluted, you will seldom see butterflies in that area. They can be a pest in crops also, since their larvae (caterpillar) feed on a number of citrus plants (larval food plant). Hey, larva’s the longest stage in the life cycle and entirely spent eating until it becomes a fully-grown caterpillar.

The saying that “a butterfly only lives for a day” is not really true. Their average life span is two weeks. But some butterflies can survive for months. If a butterfly only lasted for a day, it must have been attacked/eaten by a predator.

Photos from left - right: (a) larvae feeding on citrus leaves, (b) preparing to become a pupa, (c) a pupa, (d) comparing a male from a female butterfly–the female have more dots on its wings. (All photos taken by the author at World of Butterflies)

Although WOB is not as magnificent as I was expecting, it was a learning experience. It has reignited my curiosity in this peculiar insect. And maybe it will be worth exploring again, now that I have more knowledge. You do not need a large area at home to create a habitat for butterflies. A little garden with lots of flowers will do (tip on flowers: butterflies prefer non-fragrant, clustered ones like santan). It’s also a way of contributing something to Mother Nature.

Tags: butterfly, Manila, Marikina, Philippines, WOB