Exploration : Types of butterfly valley

1. Ecological Butterfly Valley

Within special designated mountain valleys, a luxuriant growth of nectar plants or host plants that caterpillars live upon attracts vast number of butterflies to feed on the flower nectar or a sudden phenomenon of vast appearance. In early summer between May and June, the blossoms of Eupatorium shimadai Kitamura attracts thousands of Linnaeus to feed upon the nectar in Datun Mountain within the borders of YangMingShan National Park.

2. Reproductive Butterfly Valley

Exclusive species of male butterfly like most of the Papilionidae and Pieridae, as well as some of the Lycaenidae must absorb large amount of mineral before reaching puberty. Hence, they often fly along the river shore in search of suitable spot for water absorption. As they all have fixed flying route and often gather in thousands to absorb water, this is regarded as the “Reproductive Butterfly Valley”. Typical reproductive butterfly valleys are the WuLai Mountains of Taipei County and MeiNong Yellow Butterfly Valley of Kaohsiung County where Graphium sarpedon and yellow butterflies love to gather for water absorption.

3. Winter Migratory Butterfly Valley

Some exclusive species of butterfly will gather within a mountain valley to spend their winter. Ecological and reproductive butterfly valleys are distributed around Taiwan and all over the world. However, are extremely rare. To date, large scale of migratory butterfly valleys only exist in Monarch Butterfly Valleys in California of United States and Mexico, as well as Maolin Purple Butterfly Valley.

Reference：

http://www.svtw.org.tw/~butterfly/pruple9.htm