Natalie Jeremijenko and I released two dozen butterflies in the OOZ garden. We helped them feed from some watermelon in the Strange Attractor artificial flowers then observed their behaviour. The Monarchs stayed at Strange Attractor longer and were more likely to leave, fly around the garden a bit and return to the flowers. The Painted Ladies were less likely to return once they took off. The flower design seemed to matter, with the laser cut acrylic disks being more popular than the inkjet printed designs. The blue, orange and red laser cut disks appeared to be more enticing than the white one.
A robotic Monarch was employed to see if it would attract or repel the real butterflies. They seemed mostly indifferent, but longer observation is needed as the effect is most likely to be seen as butterflies approach from a distance.
