Butterflies
The Wonders of Butterflies
Butterflies are insects in the Macrolepidopteran Clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises the large superfamily Papilionoidea, which contains at least one former group, the skippers (formerly the superfamily "Hesperioidea"), and the most recent analyses suggest it also contains the moth-butterflies (formerly the superfamily "Hedyloidea". Butterfly fossils date to the Paleocene, which was about 56 million years ago.
Butterflies have the typical four-stage insect life cycle. Winged adults lay eggs on the food plant on which their larvae, known as caterpillars, will feed. The caterpillars grow, sometimes very rapidly, and when fully developed, pupate in a chrysalis. When metamorphosis is complete, the pupal skin splits, the adult insect climbs out, and after its wings have expanded and dried, it flies off. Some butterflies, especially in the tropics, have several generations in a year, while others have a single generation, and a few in cold locations may take several years to pass through their entire life cycle.
Butterflies are often polymorphic, and many species make use of camouflage, mimicry and aposematism to evade their predators. Some, like the monarch and the painted lady, migrate over long distances. Many butterflies are attacked by parasites or parasitoids, including wasps, protozoans, flies, and other invertebrates, or are preyed upon by other organisms. Some species are pests because in their larval stages they can damage domestic crops or trees; other species are agents of pollination of some plants. Larvae of a few butterflies (e.g., harvesters) eat harmful insects, and a few are predators of ants, while others live as mutualists in association with ants. Culturally, butterflies are a popular motif in the visual and literary arts.
| Type of Butterfly |
Description |
| Monarch Butterfly |
Has mainly orange wings with black tips |
| Zebra Swallowtail |
a butterfly with distinctive black and white markings and elongated tails on its hindwings |
| Karner Blue Butterfly |
a small, blue butterfly that has a wingspan of about 1 inch |
| Blue Morpho butterfly |
a species of neotropical butterfly that has iridescent blue wings (the females are not as brilliantly colored as the males and have a brown edge with white spots surrounding the iridescent blue area). |
| Julia |
a yellow-orange tropical butterfly with long forewings |
| Mourning Cloak |
a butterfly with unusual forewing outlines, wings have pale, speckled edges and a dark inner margin with blue spots |
| Peacock Butterfly |
The wings are brownish-purple with a bright eyespot on each wing (the wings look a bit like an owl’s face). The undersides of the wings are mottled grayish-brown. |
| Queen Alexandra Birdwing Butterfly |
the world’s biggest butterflies with their wingspan measured in 30 cm |
| Giant Owl Butterfly |
has a unique pattern resembling like an owl’s eyes on their wings |
| 88 Butterfly |
unique pattern like 88 number on their wings |