Butterflies are stunning creatures of heavenly beauty, true decorations of nature. You can watch them flutter and spin endlessly. Appearance these insects are fascinating. A lot of interesting things happen in their daily lives, many facts are very interesting and unusual.
The smallest butterflies on the planet
There are two types - acetosea and rediculosis. They are so small that you can simply not notice them. The wingspan of these babies is only 2 mm.
The largest butterflies in the world
The most large insect- peacock eye atlas. This butterfly resembles a bird, as its wingspan is as much as 24 cm.
Survive among ice and frost
Apollo is the only lepidopteran insect that can survive in low temperatures calmly and without much damage to itself.
This butterfly can be found in places where the area is constantly covered with snow and covered with ice.
Bloodsucking butterflies
There are butterflies that, like mosquitoes, are able to drink human blood. These are scoops - very rare view(they are also called vampires). If in mosquitoes the bloodsuckers are females, here, on the contrary, only males bite.
Delicacy
Asian countries differ from other countries in the world in that it is considered the norm to use insects, pupae and caterpillars for food. And butterflies were no exception. Here it is an incredible and rare delicacy that requires special skills and skill in preparation.
Nutritional Features
Many are deeply convinced that all butterflies, without exception, feed on nectar. This is far from true. It turns out that there are some varieties of these insects that prefer fruits that have begun to spoil, for example, the red admiral.
Others believe that there is nothing tastier than manure. And still others do not eat anything at all, using for flight and living the energy that they managed to accumulate while in the form of a caterpillar and pupa.
Symbols
In Japan, butterflies are considered symbols of family happiness and longevity. It is customary to give origami of these insects as a random gift for a wedding.
But in Italy, butterflies are considered symbols of impending troubles, wars, devastation and hunger.
Water lovers
In general, butterflies hate water. The thing is that as soon as these beauties get their wings wet, they run the risk of never flying again.
But there is an exception - this is the lilac moth. She has the unique ability to submerge completely in water and emerge completely dry.
Features of vision
If you examine the eyes of butterflies at high magnification, you can see that they consist of several hundred lenses, all of which are very similar to honeycombs. These insects come in several colors: red, yellow and green.
Deafness
Butterflies do not distinguish sounds at all. And the question arises, how then do they manage to recognize the danger and fly away and hide in time. The fact is that insects are guided by vibration, which is why they quickly recognize the approach of an enemy.
It turns out that butterflies can amaze not only with their amazing appearance and beauty, but also with behavioral features that are truly unique and unusual.
Butterflies are beautiful creatures. I think everyone knows what a butterfly looks like and have probably met this terrible beast =)
These unique creatures are the second largest pollinators after bees.
The science that studies butterflies is called lepidopterology. An entomologist who studies butterflies is called a lepidopterologist (from the Latin name for the order of butterflies - Lepidoptera, which translates as "lepidoptera"). A lepidopterist is a person who is simply interested in butterflies.
The largest moth in the world is This is the Atlas peacock eye (Attacus Atlas). Its wingspan is more than 30 cm, and it is often mistaken for a bird.
Basically, most butterflies have a short life - only a few days. However, there are specimens with quite long life cycle: The Brixton butterfly is a long-lived butterfly, its cycle lasts up to 10 months.
During her short life, a female butterfly can lay more than 1000 eggs
Butterflies literally work wonders. The species Parnassius arcticus lives in Siberia near the Arctic Circle. It reaches places where snow and ice never melt. Its close relative Parnassius bannyngtoni from the Himalayas is the highest mountain butterfly in the world. It can be found rising even 6000 meters above sea level.
The blueberry butterfly (Zizula hylax), which lives in Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius, Arabia and tropical zone Asia and Australia, the length of the front wing is 6 mm. This is the smallest butterfly in the world.
In addition to the tropical butterflies that are familiar to us, there are also arctic butterflies. They are inconspicuous in appearance, their wings are not bright, but whitish or almost transparent, as if made of glass. Several species of butterflies that live on the Canadian Queen Elizabeth Island, 750 kilometers from the North Pole, can be called real polar bears.
The maximum speed this little creature can reach is 12 mph, but there are species that reach 50 km/h (31 mph). The fastest flight is in butterflies of the hawkmoth family.
The most amazing fact about these creatures is that butterflies need solar heat in order to fly.
The most common butterfly in Russia and Siberia is the Peacock's eye. Thanks to its original pattern, it is difficult to confuse it with any other: the upper part of the wing has a cherry-brown color and an eye-shaped spot characteristic of this species, while the lower part is completely black-brown.
The life cycle of these creatures consists of four phases: egg, caterpillar, pupa and adult (butterfly).
The butterfly lays its offspring in one place for many years in a row.
Butterflies never sleep.
The most complex organ of these amazing creatures is the eyes. They are made up of 6,000 tiny parts called lenses.
Butterflies are ancient creatures. Their images are present on Egyptian frescoes, which are more than 2.5 thousand years old.
Butterflies are one of the most common collectibles.
There is more than one species of these insects in the world, which can rightfully be considered the rarest. One of them is Queen Alexandra's swallowtail, the largest butterfly on the planet.
It is possible to detect it only on the territory Papua New Guinea and thanks to collectors, this species is on the verge of complete extinction.
There are several species of these beautiful creatures that do not eat at all during the entire imago cycle (the last stage of life). Such individuals live off the energy accumulated during the period when the butterfly was still a caterpillar.
The smallest butterfly in the world is rightfully considered the “Blue Dwarf”, whose wingspan is only 1.4 cm.
IN tropical forests There is a species of butterfly in the New and Old Worlds, the males of which feed on animal tears.
In the Brazilian butterfly calligo another way of protection. Seeing the bird, it turns over, showing the enemy the underside of its wings.
The enemy has no choice but to hastily retreat.
It's all about the pattern on the wings. This is an image of an owl with a sharp beak and large eyes.
Well, and the owl - worst enemy birds.
Female butterflies typically live longer and longer than male butterflies. It's a bit like people ;-)
Butterflies are excellent stress relievers. Doctors in Stockholm are convinced of this. Clinics in this city have greenhouses with butterflies and flowers, where patients successfully undergo treatment for stress.
Butterflies are nearsighted!
It turns out that the secret of the butterfly is hidden precisely in its scales on its wings. They maintain temperature balance and also increase flightability.
But with blood circulation everything is simple for them. There is no heart, no veins and arteries. All this is replaced by a vessel located in the abdomen, which passes into the head in the form of a tube.
The pattern on a butterfly's wings is unique, just like a person's fingerprints.
Only the Death's Head Hawkmoth (Acherontia atropos) has a special “speech” organ located in the pharynx. This butterfly can squeak when alarmed or feeling danger.
Butterflies weigh about the same as two rose petals.
Butterfly migration
Among African butterflies, the species Catopsilia florella makes the longest migrations. Every year, from December to February, its representatives, inhabiting the arid regions of the Sahel, fly south in the tens of millions. The destination is Zaire, several thousand kilometers from the start.
Unlike migratory species of temperate latitudes, migration is caused not by the onset of spring, but by the beginning of the rainy season in the south: at this time many flowers will bloom there, which will provide butterflies with food. They fly in whole clouds up to 20 kilometers long and up to 5 kilometers wide.
If such a flock descends to the ground, it is quite capable of turning off car engines! With the return of the dry season, butterflies head back to the Sahel. Other populations of this species migrate in a similar way, but they fly from southern Africa (Cape Province of South Africa) and head to the northwest.
Migratory behavior is uncommon in butterflies; it is known in only 200 out of 18,000 diurnal species, and only two dozen of them are comparable in length and regularity of their migrations to Catopsilia florella.
P.S. Interesting fact: In winter in Southern California, tourists are shown butterfly trees covered in monarch butterflies resting after a long flight from North America. The branches of these trees bend under the weight of a huge number of butterflies! It is forbidden to disturb monarchs; this will result in a hefty fine.
Butterflies are representatives of the order Lepidoptera of the class Insects of the Arthropod type.
Butterflies as arthropods
As representatives of this type of butterfly, they have:
- segmented body;
- paired jointed limbs;
- chitinous cover.
A covering of chitin protects their body and serves as a support for organs. And the segmented body and legs allow movement with such cover.
Butterflies are like insects
Insects differ from other arthropods in the following features:
- the body consists of 3 sections (head, chest, abdomen);
- have three pairs of legs;
- have two pairs of wings.
On the head of butterflies there are antennae - the organs of smell, compound eyes, palps - the organs of touch.
The chest consists of three large segments, each of them has a pair of legs, and the first and second have a pair of wings.
The abdomen is also made up of segments and on each of them there are a pair of respiratory openings - spiracles.
Butterflies as Lepidoptera
This is a special order of insects, which includes more than 150 thousand species. They differ from other insects in a number of distinctive features:
- They have two pairs of large wings covered with scales. It is the scales that provide the variety of colors of these insects.
- Butterflies feed on liquid food, mainly nectar. Therefore, they have a sucking mouthpart in the form of a proboscis.
- Their development with complete transformation: egg - larva - pupa - imago.
- The larvae of butterflies are caterpillars
- Caterpillars have chewing mouthparts and no wings.
Butterflies are diurnal (swallowtail, admiral, urticaria) and nocturnal (hawk moth, bear). They differ in body type - daytime ones are slimmer; type of antennae: in the daytime they are club-shaped, in the nocturnal ones they are feathery; folding wings: day wings fold them vertically, and night wings fold them horizontally.
The largest wings with a span of up to 30 cm are possessed by the tropical butterflies Alexander the birdwing and the Atlas peacockwing, which is called the King of Darkness due to its nocturnal lifestyle.
IN South America lives a small butterfly, which is called the glass butterfly. The middle of her wings are completely transparent.
One of the smallest daytime butterflies is our compatriot - the Icarus blueberry. Its wings are no more than 1 cm.
Butterflies are airy, weightless creatures familiar to many of us. Beautiful or not, they are all living proof of the amazingness of nature. Being born as caterpillars, they gain wings and fly away, only to later leave offspring in the form of caterpillars. Butterflies are amazing, and the diversity of their species can amaze anyone.
- The smallest butterfly, acetosia, has a wingspan of only about 2 millimeters. The largest, Tizaniya agrippina, has up to 28 centimeters.
- Butterflies, like elephants, feed using their trunk. More precisely, the proboscis (see).
- In total, there are about 165 thousand species of butterflies and moths in the world. Yes, yes, exactly thousands! Moreover, most of them prefer to lead a nocturnal lifestyle.
- Hawkmoths, night moths, can howl in a wolf-like manner. This howling buzzing mimics that of a queen bee, allowing the hawkmoth to freely enter the beehive and feast on honey, which makes up a fair share of its diet.
- Butterflies are found on all continents except Antarctica (see).
- A butterfly's eyes are made up of more than a thousand faceted elements each.
- The receptors responsible for taste are located on the legs of butterflies.
- Some species of butterflies lay more than a thousand eggs during their very short lives, from which caterpillars then hatch.
- Many other species readily feed on butterflies, for example, birds and chameleons (see).
- The northernmost butterflies live less than a thousand kilometers from the North Pole, on Canada's Queen Elizabeth Island.
- In China, India and some countries of South America, the population does not hesitate to eat butterflies.
- Some species of butterflies can reach speeds of over 60 km/h during flight, covering a distance equal to twenty to thirty thousand of their own body lengths in a minute of flight.
- Most butterflies are afraid of water, but, for example, a lilac moth can calmly emerge if it accidentally falls into the water, shake itself off and fly on.
- Monarch butterflies understand medicinal plants and know how to use them for medical purposes if their offspring need help.
- Butterflies do not have an organ called a heart.
- Butterflies distinguish only three colors - red, yellow and green.
- There are also vampire butterflies that feed in the same way as mosquitoes do - calyptra eustrigata. However, only males feed on blood, while females prefer plant foods.
- The skeleton of a butterfly, or rather the exoskeleton, is not inside its body, but outside. All internal organs are inside it.
- The cabbage butterfly is very prolific. If all the offspring of at least one cabbage tree survived, so many of its descendants would be born in a season that they would weigh three times more than all the people on Earth combined.
- In China, butterflies are considered a symbol of love and lovers.
A small selection of interesting facts about butterflies. These are some of the most beautiful insects - there is simply an incredible amount of different wing colors.
- Lepidopterology- the name of the science of butterflies.
- Attakus Atlas is the largest moth that can be mistaken for a bird, because. its wingspan is 30 cm.
- The smallest butterfly is the moth from England (Acetosea) and the moth whose homeland is the Canary Islands (Rediculosis). The body length of these butterflies is only 2 mm. The wingspan is also 2 mm.
- During her life, a female butterfly lays 1000 eggs.
- Females live longer than males.
- Butterflies able to distinguish between yellow, green and red colors.
- Butterflies don't hear. But they feel vibration, which helps them recognize predators.
- In Europe, butterflies are admired, and in China, India, and South America they are a delicacy.
- The weight of a butterfly is equal to the weight of two rose petals.
- Butterflies are excellent pollinators. But they are considered the second group of pollinators. In first place are the bees.
- There are 165 thousand species of butterflies known. Every year new discoveries occur - entomologists learn about new species.
- V. Nabokov's hobby is collecting butterflies. There are more than 4 thousand copies in his collection. The writer donated this collection to the Zoological Museum at the University of Lausanne. And V. Nabokov is responsible for the discovery of 20 species of butterflies.
- Butterflies fly at a speed of 60 km/h. Butterflies of the hawk moth family are considered the fastest.
- Butterflies- excellent stress relievers. Doctors in Stockholm are convinced of this. Clinics in this city have greenhouses with butterflies and flowers, where patients successfully undergo treatment for stress.
- In addition to the tropics, the Arctic may be a habitat for butterflies. Arctic butterflies are inconspicuous. Their wings are transparent.
- Antarctica is the only continent where butterflies have not been found.
- Among butterflies there are predators. For example, Calyptra eustrigata. The food of these butterflies is the blood of animals, which they obtain by piercing the covers of animals with a sharp proboscis. Only males are predators. Females prefer the juice of plants and fruits.
- There are butterflies that eat toxic substances. Thus, the caterpillars of the “little monarch” (Danaus cbrysippus) feed on the juice of grasses that secrete toxic substances. Later, the poison molecules end up in the butterfly's body. You won’t envy a bird that decides to peck such a butterfly! At best, the bird will experience severe vomiting; at worst, cardiac arrest. If the bird still manages to survive, it will no longer risk attacking the butterflies - the avoidance reflex will work. So toxic substances are a kind of protection for the “small monarchs” from their enemies.
- The Brazilian calligo butterfly has a different method of defense. Seeing the bird, it turns over, showing the enemy the underside of its wings. The enemy has no choice but to hastily retreat. It's all about the pattern on the wings. This is an image of an owl with a sharp beak and large eyes. Well, the owl is the worst enemy of birds.
- Butterflies do not complain about appetite: they can eat food weighing 2 times more than their own weight.
- There are also butterflies who do not tend to eat food due to the lack of a mouth. Such butterflies live on the energy they accumulated in the caterpillar stage.
- The food of some species of butterflies in the tropics of the Old and New Worlds is animal tears.
- Caterpillars of some species of butterflies feed on wool and wax. These are moths (clothes moths, fur moths), wax moths.
- And also there are butterflies feasting on manure and rotting fruit. For example, Red Admiral.
- The butterflies' taste sensors are located in their legs. Therefore, butterflies recognize food by standing on it.
- Butterflies have a complex eye structure. Each eye is made up of 6 thousand tiny parts, lenses.
- But with blood circulation everything is simple for them. There is no heart, no veins and arteries. All this is replaced by a vessel located in the abdomen, which passes into the head in the form of a tube.
- The butterfly's skeleton is located on the outside of its body. Its name is exoskeleton. It helps to retain water inside the butterfly's body, thereby preventing it from drying out.
- Out of 4.5 million butterfly wings you can complete the painting. And there is such a picture. Its title is “The Soldier’s Selfless Faith.” Its owner was Kim Il Sung, who received this painting in honor of his 80th birthday.
