If you’re passionate about pollinators, then you probably know that butterflies love milkweed.
![](http://www.raisingjane.org/journal/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/800px-Great_spangled_fritillary_on_common_milkweed_butterfly_speyeria_cybele.jpg)
Photo by Barnes Dr Thomas G, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, via Wikimedia Commons
But here’s a trickier bit of trivia:
Why are butterflies called butter flies?
(As a Butters, I simply had to know.)
Butterflies, it is said, earned their name back when they would flutter around the milk pails and butter churns on farms.
![](http://www.raisingjane.org/journal/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/A_milkmaid_entering_a_pen_in_which_a_cowherd_is_leaning_on_o_Wellcome_V0020927.jpg)
milkmaid, G. Morland via Wikimedia Commons
Makes sense, but also makes you wonder why these aren’t called milklappers (buckettippers?) …
![](http://www.raisingjane.org/journal/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/800px-Cats_on_a_Farm.jpg)
Photo by David Maitland via Wikimedia Commons
Anymoooo …
Here’s a cute 1935 classic called “Molly Moo-Cow and the Butterflies,” just for fun:
I love this old cartoon. The music is wonderful and it seems that the art graphics are superior to what I see today in cartoons. Maybe it is my age showing? Our butterflies down here also love the Pentas.
I like knowing how butterflies got there names! It’s such a simple explanation.
The cartoon was so cute and fun to watch. Oh how I wish cartoons were still like this! I love how basic they were.
What fun to watch! Thank you.