Welcome to this issue of Stumped by Nature, where we notice nature lurking just beyond our screens, curate a list of outside-y events in Austin, and build community with other folks in the thick of the startup ecosystem.
In this week’s issue:
🦋 Butterflies
🌤️ Upcoming outdoors events
Let’s dig in!
-Nicole
P.S. Stumped by Nature has a new home on the internet. Check out the business directory, newsletter archives, and how to get involved in this community
Upcoming events I’m hosting for ATX Outsiders:
Monday, November 16: (ATX Outsiders + friends) Austin Reading Club: read a book of your choice and meet a couple dozen fellow readers. Solitary hobbies don’t have to be isolating.
Save the date: December 6: put a hold for that late morning/early afternoon—this will be fun
NATURE SPOTLIGHT
Scientifically speaking, butterflies are metal AF.
They start as a caterpillar.
They envelop themselves in a chrysalis.
They emerge as an entirely different physical entity.
Today we’re digging into butterflies.
Black swallowtail
Butterflies have very confusing PR.
In my mind, they’re these dainty, flitting little creatures, ripe for Lisa Frank renderings and grown women’s dating photo backgrounds.
That light, playful femininity seems in direct bubblegum contrast to the very intense, physics-pushing insect.
Facets and features of butterflies
There are more than 440 types of butterflies in Texas. How lucky are we.
Butterflies are winged, daytime-active insects with an exoskeleton, six legs, and four wings covered in overlapping, colored scales
Butterflies are pollinators as a side effect. As they slurp nectar through their proboscis, their legs and body collect pollen grains and transfer them to the next flower
Male and female butterflies are distinguishable by specific markings, like the placement or color of a line or dot, but the more straightforward tell is that only males have claspers at the base of the abdomen for use during mating
Females lay between several dozen and several hundred eggs, sometimes singularly, sometimes in clusters, sometimes scattered at random as they fly over grassland
The life cycle is a four-stage metamorphosis:
Once caterpillars emerge from eggs in 4-5 days, they often eat the eggshell for nutrients
Caterpillars’ primary job is eating and growing
Once adequately plump, the caterpillar transforms into a chrysalis. The physical + hormonal process is called pupation. The caterpillar finds a sheltered place to hang upside down in a J shape, splits at the head, and drops old skin in bunches to reveal the hardening pupa casing
What’s going on in there? Oh, just the usual: body tissues break down into “nutrient-rich cellular soup” and the pre-existing cell clusters (aka imaginal discs) use the fluid to perform extensive tissue remodeling, like constructing wings, antennae, compound eyes, and legs
A week or two later, a butterfly emerges with new equipment, new needs, and a different set of challenges to face in the world. It carries the parts of the nervous system and the protective toxins from its diet, but sheds any part that doesn’t serve the new winged purpose
July 2017: Penang, Malaysia: butterfly drying its wings before its first flight + me drying my eyes at the awe
Pretty Toxic
Vocab time: aposematism is the natural defense mechanism of being bright and beautiful as a way to advertise they will not hesitate to eff up a predator. Example: Monarchs’ high contrast black and orange wings are an omen of the caterpillar-era-consumed milkweed—the caterpillar dietary decisions survive through the chrysalis phase to make the butterfly phase toxic
Batesian mimicry is when harmless butterflies play along—they go high color contrast to make predators think they’re also poisonous, and hope birds won’t call their bluff
All of this could be yours for the low low price of hospitable plants
If you want the Monarchs, American snout, gulf fritillary, pipevine swallowtail, and black swallowtail, get ye a native butterfly garden, and plunk it full of the good native stuff.
May 2026: school entry aka: not where I’d expect to find milkweed
Host plants: Many butterflies have highly specific host plants. If that plant isn’t available, egg-laying doesn’t happen.
Milkweed is THE PLANT for Monarchs. It’s essential as the host plant for caterpillars to consume.
But this particular host plant has an evil cousin, also a milkweed, also sold in plant nurseries alongside ideal milkweed varieties, but with a big ol' yikes attached.
The kind of milkweed you don’t want: tropical milkweed. It doesn’t die back in winter, which means it’ll tempt monarchs to stay in Austin and die in the cold + it becomes a little petri dish for the protozoan parasites that travel with monarchs. Traveling monarchs deposit the parasite (Ophryocytis elektroscirrha) on milkweed leaves. Native milkweeds die back, wiping out the parasite. Tropical milkweed doesn’t die back, allowing the parasite to build up over time, so future generations of monarch caterpillars can consume dangerous levels, which can lower migration success rates, lifespan, mating success, and flight ability.
It’s nasty business, and it’s avoidable by finding regional milkweed.
And FYI: the host plant is going to look tattered by the end—its job is to house and be consumed by caterpillars that depend on it.
Nectar plants: butterflies need fuel. Greg’s Mistflower, Texas Lantana, Salvias, coneflowers, frostweed, zinnias, and pentas are solid options—we’re looking for flat flower clusters that make it easier for butterflies to land.
Dual-use plants: flame acanthus, milkweed, and frogfruit offer both host plant and nectar flow, which is a great excuse to rage against lawns and/or HOAs.
October 8, 2026: kindergarten Monarch migration, including scattering wildflower seeds into the meadow
The Great Monarch Butterfly Migration
Of the several hundred butterfly varieties in Texas, a few are outliers in their habits, including the Monarch.
After the whole internal insect reorg, this butterfly emerges with beautiful warning colors, slurps up nectar and pollinates widely, then its whole half a gram self flies up to 3,000 miles to Oyamel fir forests in Mexico.
Monarchs are not here for the winter—they want warm weather to indulge in food and breeding. To make this possible, they adjust their lifespans. The summer butterflies live only a few weeks. The migratory butterflies are a Super Generation who live six to nine months. These southward bound butterflies have a one way autumn ticket to Mexico, and they rely on their children and grandchildren to continue the journey northward.
I’m writing this fresh from a 1,150ish mile road trip, and I have nothing but respect for the monarchs’ 50-100 miles a day pace, at the mercy of air currents/magnetic pull of the earth/the position of the sun, with zero Diet Cokes to boost the process.
November 8, 2026: roadtrip pause at the Insectarium in New Orleans
Not pictured: clinking sample cups of mealworm chutney + cinnamon bug crunch
Is it a butterfly or a moth?
Butterflies and moths are different: at the most recognizable level, they have different names.
They’re both in the insect order Lepidoptera, meaning “scaled wings,” and they can be visually sorted by knowing:
a. butterflies have chrysalises, while moths have cocoons
b. butterflies have club-shaped antennae, like a Q-tip. Moths have thread- or feather-like antennea
c. that at least one source on the internet says it’s a bit hopeless to try to distinguish the difference while they’re caterpillars because there are 11,000 species, and wouldn’t the novelty of surprise be okay every once in a while?
These are butterflies
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Parenting tip:
Grab a butterfly kit + live caterpillars off the internet, because of course you can buy insects online
Life tip: do not, under any circumstance, invite moths into your home
Look at the butterfly enclosure regularly with varying degrees of awe and concern until it’s been long enough to lure you into a sense of anticlimax
Jump scare when you notice the sweep of wings on mesh, and hurriedly find the instruction manual with an awareness that the kids carried off the sugar water pipette
The soggy wings!
Wake the kids early to release the butterflies into the wild, but don’t rush when one’s slow to take flight—of all of the ways to be a couple minutes tardy to school, a first flight seems reasonable
April 23, 2026: things escalated
And so, how nice to have an evolutionary precedent for obliterating a familiar phase of life and having no idea what’s happening in the middle, transformative part of a life change.
To know it’ll take a moment for wings to dry.
That there’s ecological benefit in being the most vibrant versions of ourselves, colored by decisions from a previous, now unrecognizable life.
UPCOMING EVENTS
🗓️ November 12: Stories on the Lawn: The Office: get your Moth-style storytelling fix
🗓️ November 13: FoundHER’s Walk & Talk: momentum is good for us
🗓️ November 13: Pitch and Run ATX: even more momentum
🗓️ November 13: Bird Walk with Travis Audubon: we all know birding is cool
🗓️ November 13: Art Bike Ride: get those spokes turning + chat with artists along the way
🗓️ November 13: Rancho Rodeo: Live music + two-step lessons
🗓️ November 13: The Flower Social: guided bouquet-making
🗓️ November 13–21: Creek Show: light-based art installations to indulge in the early evening darkness
🗓️ November 14: Beginner Birding Walk & Talk: great way to start the day
🗓️ November 14: The Board Walks: always good for conversation
🗓️ November 14: Second Saturday Workday at Festival Beach Food Forest: BYO gloves
🗓️ November 14: Family Birding at the Wildflower Center: barter your recyclables for free entry
🗓️ November 14: Kids on Bikes in Parks: exactly what it sounds like
🗓️ November 14: Log Inoculation Workshop: Drill a log and eat oyster mushrooms for years to come
🗓️ November 14: Scavenger Hunt Hike: Scavenge for scavengers
🗓️ November 14: Senses on the Summit Night Hike: Dark early = event ends at 7:45pm = reasonable bedtime
🗓️ November 14–15: Texas Book Festival: Authors and readers descend on the Capitol
🗓️ November 14–15: Austin Studio Tour: It’s a good weekend to have creative interests in Austin
🗓️ November 14–15: The Art of Peter Mansbendel at Oakwood Cemetery: technically speaking, the woodcarver will be present, but his work will have to speak for itself
🗓️ November 15: Sunday Social: Yoga + Coffee: plus a sound bath
🗓️ November 17: Thought Experiments on Patios x ATX Writing Club: join the few hundred other Austinites who find this compelling
🗓️ November 19: Austin Ruck Club: a 6am social start to your day
🗓️ November 19: Sourdough Workshop: what will you name your starter?
PANTRY MOTH UPDATE
I wrote about my pantry moth infestation on June 25, 2026.
I’m aiming for at least 45 moth-free days before I reclaim my pantry.
Admittedly, I have not been home.
That’s all for this week!
In the meantime, I hope what you’re becoming is beautiful, tender, and toxic to anyone who interferes.
-Nicole
OPTIONAL SIDE QUESTS
🪵 Shall we take this outside? Of course. Join ATX Outsiders.
🪵 Are you sitting on a misogi-esque story? Spill.
🪵 Follow my calendar to know when we’re rallying.
🪵 Is this newsletter not your vibe? Forward it to your enemies to make them suffer too.
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