The beautiful butterfly- Interesting Facts

A Butterfly is one of the beautiful creations of God. You can see so many different varieties and colors of butterfly all around. Mostly kids enjoy playing with butterfly. Humans need butterflies. Often unnoticed, they play an important role in maintaining the balance of nature and health of the living world.

Benefits of the butterfly in our gardens

Butterflies pollinate wild plants and our crops, ensuring the production of seeds and fruits required for the continued survival of plants and animals, including humans.
Due to their fragility to ecological change, butterflies are elegant indicators of ecosystem health.
Butterflies are a valuable source of food for songbirds.
They eat other insects, pollinate crops, are food for other animals, make products we use (like honey and silk) or have medical uses.

Formation: Butterfly has mainly four stages in their life cycle.

1. Egg - the birth stage: The female butterfly lays an egg on a plant. The embryo develops inside the egg. A typical time for this process would be from two to three weeks, however there are species that overwinter at this stage, and thus remain in this state from the summer to the following spring.

2. Caterpillar / larva - the growth stage: This is the important stage in the life cycle of butterfly. The egg hatches and the larva (caterpillar) comes out. Utilizing its food plant, the caterpillar absorbs a large quantity of food. As the caterpillars do not have elastic skin, they need to shed their skin four times. The new skin is much larger than the previous one, thus enabling the growth. As with eggs and the adult butterflies, caterpillars are unique in their appearance. This stage usually lasts from one to two months, but some species overwinter as caterpillars.

3. The Pupa - Transformation stage: The caterpillar feeds on the plant and grows. When its skin becomes too small, the old skin splits open and the caterpillar pops out with a new skin on. This happens four or five times. When the caterpillar is fully grown it makes a little silk pad on a leaf or twig and attaches itself to it. The caterpillar feeds on the plant and grows. When its skin becomes too small, the old skin splits open and the caterpillar pops out with a new skin on. This happens four or five times. When the caterpillar is fully grown it makes a little silk pad on a leaf or twig and attaches itself to it.

4. Adult - the final formation of butterfly: When the metamorphosis is completed, the adult butterfly breaks the pupal case, pulls itself out and hangs upside down with its wings wet and limp. It begins immediately expanding its wings by forcefully pumping blood into the veins of its wings. Once the wings have reached their definite measurements, the butterfly lets them dry and harden up. When that is accomplished, the butterfly pumps the blood back out of its wing veins. Now the wings are light and strong, and the butterfly is ready to take it's first flight.

Like all other insects, butterflies have six legs and feet. In some species such as the monarch, the front pair of legs remains tucked up under the body most of the time, and are difficult to see. Butterflies also have two antennae and an exoskeleton. An exoskeleton is where their skeleton is on the outside of their bodies. This protects the insect and keeps water inside their bodies so they don't dry out. Butterflies have compound eyes each of which can consist of up to 6,000 individual lenses.

Interesting things about the butterfly:

The word butterfly came from the English word Buttorfleoge. Perhaps because, in medieval times, butterflies could be seen hovering around butter churns or that their excrement is yellowish in color.

There are 292 species of butterflies in Canada. Most of which are found in British Columbia (176) and the fewest on Prince Edward Island (42). In Ontario we have 142 species.

Butterflies are the second largest group of pollinators, next to bees.

Butterflies don't have lungs.

Butterflies taste with their feet.

Butterflies smell with their antennae.

Some members of the Skipper family of butterflies can attain flight speeds in excess of 50 kph.

Butterflies breath through openings in their abdomen called "spiracles".
Butterflies are divided into two main groups called skippers (hesperioidea) and true butterflies (papilionoidea).
Female butterflies usually are bigger and live longer than male butterflies.
The female moth produces a scent that a male moth can smell a mile away.
Caterpillars are not worms. Caterpillars have legs; worms do not.
Butterflies weigh only as much as two rose petals, but can fly thousands of miles.
Most butterflies prefer flowers that are pink, red, purple or yellow and that are open all day. Most moths lean toward pale or white flowers that open in the evening.

Most butterflies and many other insects can see ultraviolet, a color that is invisible to human eyes.
The largest threat to butterflies is loss of habitat.
Since butterflies are cold blooded it is necessary for them to warm up their flight muscles. This is done by basking in the sun in order to absorb heat.
The Painted Lady is the most wide spread butterfly species in the world. Occurring on all continents accept South American and Antarctica.
The wings of some butterflies are marked with patterns that look very much like letters of the alphabet, as well as numerals.
In some parts of the world caterpillars are considered to be a delicacy and are eaten by people.

What Do Butterflies Eat?

Butterflies don't have mouths that allow them to bite or chew. They, along with most moths have a long straw-like structure called a proboscis which they use to drink nectar and juices. When not in use, the proboscis remains coiled like a garden hose.
Most butterflies sip flower nectar, but did you know some species of butterfly also imbibe fluids from sap on trees, pollen, rotting fruits, bird droppings, animal dung or even animal carcasses.
Adult butterflies can also usually be found drinking fluids at wet sand or mud, along stream edges or on dirt tracks. These often contain minerals.