Letter of the week
Fabulous freak of nature?
I thoroughly enjoyed your recent article on butterflies [18 July issue] and was surprised to discover that most species only spend weeks or even days in this colourful adult stage of their life cycle. Many years ago, my mother called me into the spare bedroom, where she showed me a butterfly resting on a houseplant and told me it wouldn’t leave, no matter how wide she opened the window. It lived there for two years, on its favourite plant, taking a little flit to