Butterflies are beautiful and wonderful insects.
Let’s find out more about butterflies!
- Butterflies date back to the Paleocene.
- That means that there butterfly fossils dating 56 million years ago.
- Butterflies have a 4 stage insect life cycle.
- Winged adults lay eggs on a plant.
- Butterflies attach their eggs to leaves with special glue.
- These are known as caterpillars.
- Most of the caterpillars are herbivores.
- They eat… leaves!
- The caterpillars grow and develop into a chrysalis.
- When metamorphosis is done they the adult climbs out and here it is- the butterfly!
- A butterfly will wait a few hours before its first “flight’.
- This happens because they are waiting for their wings to fill with blood and dry.
- Butterflies have 4 wings.
- On the adult stage, they can live between a week and a year.
- It mostly depends on the species.
- Some butterflies have several generations in a year.
- This happens more often in tropical places.
- Others have a single generation.
- Butterflies are often polymorphic.
- Many species make use of camouflage, mimicry, and aposematism.
- Some butterflies, sometimes migrate far away.
- The ones who migrate are called monarch butterflies.
- Most butterflies feed on nectar from flowers.
- Butterflies have taste detectors on… their feet!
- It is estimated that there are 15.000 – 20.000 different species of butterflies.
- They can travel more than 4000km.
- Females will lay eggs and a new generation of monarchs will travel back completing the cycle.
- In order to fly they need a specific body temperature, otherwise, they can’t.
- This temperature is about 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Butterflies are nearsighted, but they aren’t colorblind.
