Monarch butterflies need milkweed plants to lay their eggs. More than beautiful, monarch butterflies contribute to the health of our planet. While feeding on nectar, they pollinate many types of wildflowers. Monarch butterflies are also an important food source for birds, small animals, and other insects.
The monarch butterfly is one of the most recognizable and well studied butterflies on the planet. Its orange wings are laced with black lines and bordered with white dots. Famous for their seasonal migration, millions of monarchs migrate from the United States and Canada south to California and Mexico for the winter.
Because only the caterpillars of the Monarch have adapted to be unaffected by the defense, they have no competition for the food source. Monarch caterpillars are able to eat leaves of the milkweed and store the glycosides in their own bodies, which makes the caterpillar toxic.
Monarch butterflies typically live from 2 to 6 weeks except for the last generation of the year, which can live up to 8 to 9 months.
At night, or during inclement weather, most butterflies perch on the underside of a leaf, crawl deep between blades of grass or into a crevice in rocks, or find some other shelter, and sleep.
Butterflies — We all know the social butterfly! This personality is social and influencing. They need to interact with others and are friendly, charming, persuasive, talkative, impulsive, and optimistic. They are usually a good leader and can motivate others.
It occurs when light passes through a transparent, muiltlayered surface and is reflected more than once. The multiple reflections intensify the colours. This gives butterflies their trademark glittery beauty. Butterfly wings are covered in thousands of microscopic scales that are split into two to three layers.
In its metamorphosis from the common, colorless caterpillar to the exquisite winged creature of delicate beauty, the butterfly has become a metaphor for transformation and hope; across cultures, it has become a symbol for rebirth and resurrection, for the triumph of the spirit and the soul over the physical prison, the
A butterfly's role—Areas filled with butterflies, moths, and other invertebrates benefit with pollination and natural pest control. Butterflies and moths are also an important part of the food chain, providing food for birds, bats, and other animals.
10 Fascinating Facts about Butterflies
- Butterfly wings are transparent.
- There are almost 20,000 butterfly species.
- Butterflies use their feet to taste.
- Butterflies only live for a few weeks.
- The most common butterfly in the US is the Cabbage White.
- Some butterfly species migrate from the cold.
There are a variety of predators that like to chow down on a butterfly like birds, snakes, lizards, rats, and monkeys. Also, there are other insects that attack butterflies such as wasps, ants, and parasitic flies.
This name perfectly suits the insects in this group because their wings are covered with thousands of tiny scales overlapping in rows. Like all other insects, butterflies have six legs and three main body parts: head, thorax (chest or mid section) and abdomen (tail end). They also have two antennae and an exoskeleton.
Butterflies don't bite because they can't. Caterpillars munch on leaves and eat voraciously with their chewing mouthparts, and some of them do bite if they feel threatened. But once they become butterflies, they only have a long, curled proboscis, which is like a soft drinking straw—their jaws are gone.
The butterfly and moth develop through a process called metamorphosis. This is a Greek word that means transformation or change in shape. There are four stages in the metamorphosis of butterflies and moths: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.
Birds such as black-backed orioles and black-headed grosbeaks are common predators at monarch overwintering sites. These species can eat large quantities of monarchs without getting poisoned.
The Viceroy butterfly (Limenitis archippus) is nearly identical to the Monarch. It has orange-brown wings with dark black veins. A black line across the hindwing distinguishes it from the Monarch. The Queen butterfly (Danaus gilippus) is just slightly smaller than the Monarch.
Successful migrating monarchs will live between 6 to 9 months and reproduce and die in the southern U.S. in the spring. Their offspring then carry on their migration north. Therefore, individual monarchs do not make it back to their original starting place.
In a nod to their life cycle, from egg to caterpillar to butterfly, monarchs can represent transformation and rebirth to some people. They might view a monarch sighting as a sign of upcoming change or a new direction in their life. Some sources indicate the butterflies are a symbol of hope and resilience.
Generally they "bask" with their wings outstretched in order to capture the maximum amount of UV radiation. Butterflies do not have it easy. They are constantly avoiding freezing, desiccation, heat stress, and predation. That is why they have developed so many behavioral strategies in order to survive.
Monarchs have many natural enemies. Predators such as spiders and fire ants kill and eat monarch eggs and caterpillars. Some birds and wasps feed on adult butterflies. These predators are easy to see, but monarchs also suffer attacks from parasites, organisms that live inside the monarchs' bodies.
Also called butterfly shell. a small clam, Donax variabilis, having fanlike bands of various hues and common in intertidal zones of the E and S U.S. coasts: the paired empty shells often spread in a butterfly shape.
Most butterflies get their different shades of brown and yellow from melanin, the same pigment that makes you tan in summer and gives some people freckles. The structural color of butterflies is where things get interesting.
Adult butterflies do not urinate or defecate (or "go to the bathroom"). Occasionally adult butterflies drink so much they must emit a fine liquid spray from the tip of their abdomen.
The adult butterfly has three main body parts head thorax and abdomen.
The posterior wings, attached to the metathorax (the last segment of the thorax), are called the hindwings. Hindwings are actually unnecessary for flight but essential for the execution of normal evasive flight in butterflies and moths, according to a 2008 paper by Benjamin Jantzen and Thomas Eisner, published in PNAS.
