Don’t we all love butterflies? If you are fortunate sufficiently, you might spot these lovely creatures in your garden or in the park. But do you know that these insects have a lot of interesting facts about them? For instance, butterflies are a part of a different class of insects, namely Lepidoptera. We love watching these bright, colorful buttering roaming in our gardens. But we do not know much about these insects. These are some fascinating facts about butterflies that you probably didn’t know.
#1. Butterflies do not eat solid food:
This is one common fact about butterflies that not many of us know. They mostly live on a liquid diet. Most adult butterflies drink nectar from flowers and live on that. Their mouth structure does not allow them to chew solid food. Thus, they can only have liquid foods. They have an organ called a proboscis, which stays under the butterfly’s chin. They use this as a straw to drink the nectar or any other liquid food.
#2. Butterflies cannot fly when they are cold:
The air temperature heavily impacts their bodily functions. So they need an ideal temperature to fly and move around. They need a physique temperature of 85 degrees Fahrenheit to fly.
#3. Butterflies can see all the colors:
A butterfly can see many colors, even those that are not visible to the human eye. It can also see multiple ultraviolet colors that are invisible to us. This makes it easy for them to locate predators and keep themselves safe. It also acts as a mark for them to spot various things. Sometimes they can also have ultraviolet colors on their wings. They are generally near-sighted and cannot see anything that is too far.
#4. Butterflies use tricks to keep themselves safe:
They are tiny creatures, which makes it easy for other predators to attack them. To keep themselves safe, they use several tricks. Butterflies use their colorful wings to camouflage themselves in between trees and flowers. This way, they can keep the predators at bay. Some butterflies also fold their wings to blend in with the surrounding.
#5. Butterflies have short life spans:
Few butterflies like the small blue ones live only for a few weeks. Most of the butterflies do not have a very long life span. However, few butterflies like mourning cloaks and monarchs have comparatively longer life spans. They can live up to nine or ten months. The butterflies that survive only for a few weeks have two main objectives: eating and mating.
#6. The most oversized butterfly is the Giant Swallowtail Butterfly:
This is possibly one of the most giant butterflies. It has large wings that measure somewhere between four to seven inches. Among this butterfly, the female butterfly is more significant than the male butterfly. They are called swallow because they have long tails at the back of their wings. It resembles the tails of the birds, called swallows.
#7. Butterflies migrate from one place to another:
Several butterflies migrate from one place to another due to varying seasons. Some of the butterflies which migrate are Cloudless Sulphur, American Lady, Sachem, Question Mark, Fiery Skipper, Mourning Cloak, etc. But Monarchs are the only butterflies that can migrate an average of 2500 miles.
So, now you know a lot of interesting facts about these beautiful insects. Till now, you have read about them in various poems and short stories, but now you have a lot of information about them.
