Butterflies

Butterflies are also called moths. However, this name has nothing to do with the word “fold”, but originally comes from the word “flutter”!

Characteristics

What do butterflies look like?

Butterflies are easy to spot: they have a small, thin body with four large, often colored or variegated, wings. The color of the wings is created by very fine color scales. Some butterflies have around a million such colored scales on their wings.

That is why butterflies and their close relatives are also called scale winged butterflies. The colored scales form beautiful patterns that can be used to tell the different species apart. On their small heads, butterflies have compound eyes that can be composed of up to 30,000 individual lenses or facets. The long feelers, which can look like threads, combs, or clubs, are also striking.

Where do butterflies live?

Butterflies are distributed all over the world. Only in very cold areas are there no butterflies. Butterflies are mostly found in meadows, fields, and bushes, at the edges of forests, and in forests. Butterflies can live almost anywhere that plants grow.

What types of butterflies are there?

With around 150,000 species, the butterflies or scale insects form a large group within the insects. Butterflies also include moths, moths, moths, moths, moths, moths, and moths. Some butterflies are also called owls, bears, ribbons, or house mothers.

Some butterflies, such as the owl butterfly from Central and South America, have a huge marking on the underside of their wings that looks like an owl’s eye. That is why they are also called owlet moths. This “eye” is designed to deter birds that want to eat butterflies. The Marbled White also has a striking pattern on its wings: the black and white pattern is reminiscent – as the name suggests – of a chessboard.

How old do butterflies get?

While the caterpillar stage can last several years in some butterflies, moths rarely live more than two weeks. There are even butterflies that live so short that they don’t even need to eat.

But some butterflies, such as the peacock moth, can hibernate as adults in attics, basements, hollow trees, or other sheltered places. The Admiral flies to warm southern Europe in winter. From there he flies back to Central Europe in the spring.

Behavior

How do butterflies live?

Butterflies flutter from flower to flower in search of food. Some butterflies, the real butterflies, do this during the day, some forage at dusk, and some at night.

Others, such as the owl butterfly, belong to the butterflies but do not like the bright sunlight and are therefore mainly active in the mornings and evenings during twilight. They spend the day perched on trunks and branches, folding their wings in a typical pose. With their compound eyes, they can see ultraviolet light. We humans cannot perceive this light. This means that flowers look very different to butterflies than they do to us.

But anyway, a butterfly knows right away if it likes a flower when it lands on it. Because butterflies have very sensitive taste organs on their front legs. They “smell” more than 1000 times better than we humans. Some butterflies protect themselves from enemies by producing poisons. The body of the white tree nymph contains such strong poisonous alkaloids that it is not eaten by enemies such as birds.

The strikingly pretty patterned butterflies have a wingspan of over 15 centimeters and are found from southern China and Malaysia to the Philippines and Thailand.

Like other insects, butterflies fly from flower to flower and from flower to flower, transporting pollen from one plant to the next. This pollination is important for many plants so that they can reproduce. Butterflies can often be seen sitting in the sun with their wings spread. Some butterflies use this to warm up their bodies.

Dolls don’t do anything. They don’t eat. You don’t move. At this stage in the development of butterflies, the clumsy, sausage-shaped caterpillar is converted into a delicate moth capable of flight. But this happens without anyone being able to see it from the outside.

Caterpillars are pure eating machines. They have to gather the nutrients they need to turn into a butterfly very quickly. In a short time, they increase their weight a thousandfold. As a result, they don’t have time to do anything other than eat.

How do butterflies reproduce?

The different butterflies behave differently when looking for a partner. In the case of the peacock and admiral, the males occupy a territory and drive away intruders. Swallowtails, on the other hand, occupy vantage points and wait there for a female to flutter by. Many butterflies release scents when a mate approaches. The antennae have very fine olfactory organs. After mating, the female lays eggs, from which butterflies develop through various stages. The larvae that hatch from the eggs of the butterfly are called caterpillars. They have twelve small pinpoint eyes and tiny feelers on their heads.

On its sausage-shaped body are short, stubby legs, which the caterpillar uses to crawl around. So that they do not have to search for food, the female butterflies lay their eggs directly on the caterpillars’ food plant. In order to transform into a butterfly, the caterpillar has to pupate.

She spins a long thread out of her body and envelops herself completely. This shell is called a “cocoon” and the “pupa” is the stage in the transformation into a butterfly. The mandibles of the caterpillar become the trunk, the long legs of the butterflies emerge from the stubby legs and the compound eyes develop from the pinpoint eyes.

When the butterfly conversion is complete, the pupa’s shell will burst and the butterfly will hatch. But he can’t take off right away because the wings are still wrinkled. That is why the butterfly has to pump them up with hemolymph – as the insects’ blood is called. This will unfold the wings. In addition, they are initially very soft and must first harden in the air. A few hours pass before the butterfly can fly away.