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Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran suborder Rhopalocera, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises the superfamilies Hedyloidea (moth-butterflies in the Americas) and Papilionoidea (all others).
6 days ago · butterfly, (superfamily Papilionoidea), any of numerous species of insects belonging to multiple families. Butterflies, along with the moths and the skippers, make up the insect order Lepidoptera. Butterflies are nearly worldwide in their distribution.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Great Migrations: Rhythm of Life: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/great-migrations-episode-guide/4993/OverviewCheck out the lifecycle of a monar...
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- Butterfly Wings Are Transparent
- Butterflies Taste with Their Feet
- Butterflies Live on An All-Liquid Diet
- A Butterfly Must Assemble Its Own Proboscis—Quickly
- Butterflies Drink from Mud Puddles
- Butterflies Can't Fly If They're Cold
- A Newly Emerged Butterfly Can't Fly
- Butterflies Often Live Just A Few Weeks
- Butterflies Are Nearsighted But Can See Colors
- Butterflies Employ Tricks to Avoid Being Eaten
How can that be? We know butterflies as perhaps the most colorful, vibrant insects around! Well, a butterfly's wings are covered by thousands of tiny scales, and these scales reflect light in different colors. But underneath all of those scales, a butterfly wingis actually formed by layers of chitin—the same protein that makes up an insect's exoske...
Butterflies have taste receptors on their feet to help them find their host plants and locate food. A female butterfly lands on different plants, drumming the leaves with her feet until the plant releases its juices. Spines on the back of her legs have chemoreceptors that detect the right match of plant chemicals. When she identifies the right plan...
Speaking of butterflies eating, adult butterflies can only feed on liquids—usually nectar. Their mouthparts are modified to enable them to drink, but they can't chew solids. A proboscis, which functions as a drinking straw, stays curled up under the butterfly's chin until it finds a source of nectar or other liquid nutrition. The long, tubular stru...
A butterfly that can't drink nectar is doomed. One of its first jobs as an adult butterfly is to assemble its mouthparts. When a new adult emerges from the pupal case or chrysalis, its mouth is in two pieces. Using palpi located adjacent to the proboscis, the butterfly begins working the two partstogether to form a single, tubular proboscis. You ma...
A butterfly cannot live on sugar alone; it needs minerals, too. To supplement its diet of nectar, a butterfly will occasionally sip from mud puddles, which are rich in minerals and salts. This behavior, called puddling, occurs more often in male butterflies, which incorporate the minerals into their sperm. These nutrients are then transferred to th...
Butterflies need an ideal body temperature of about 85 degrees Fahrenheit to fly. Since they're cold-blooded animals, they can't regulate their own body temperatures. As a result, the surrounding air temperature has a big impact on their ability to function. If the air temperature falls below 55 degrees Fahrenheit, butterflies are rendered immobi...
Inside the chrysalis, a developing butterfly waits to emerge with its wings collapsed around its body. When it finally breaks free of the pupal case, it greets the world with tiny, shriveled wings. The butterfly must immediately pump body fluid through its wing veinsto expand them. Once its wings reach their full size, the butterfly must rest for a...
Once it emerges from its chrysalis as an adult, a butterfly has only two to four short weeks to live, in most cases. During that time, it focuses all its energy on two tasks: eating and mating. Some of the smallest butterflies, the blues, may only survive a few days. However, butterflies that overwinter as adults, like monarchs and mourning cloaks,...
Within about 10–12 feet, butterfly eyesight is quite good. Anything beyond that distance gets a little blurry, though. Despite that, butterflies can see not just some of the colors that we can see, but also a range of ultraviolet colors that are invisible to the human eye. The butterflies themselves may even have ultraviolet markings on their win...
Butterflies rank pretty low on the food chain, with lots of hungry predators happy to make a meal of them. Therefore, they need some defense mechanisms. Some butterflies fold their wings to blend into the background, using camouflageto render themselves all but invisible to predators. Others try the opposite strategy, wearing vibrant colors and pat...
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Sep 11, 2024 · Monarch butterfly, member of the milkweed butterfly group known for its large size, its orange and black wings, and its long annual migrations. Monarchs are found primarily in North, Central, and South America but also occur intermittently in other parts of the world.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Learn about butterflies, the colourful insects that belong to the order Lepidoptera. Find out how they evolved, what they eat, how they fly, and how they are related to plants and other animals.
Welcome to the Butterflies of India website! This is an online peer-reviewed resource, a citizen science platform, where ordinary citizens as well as working scientists participate in gathering scientific data and building this free, authoritative resource on Indian butterflies.
