Interesting Butterfly Insect Facts. Important information about butterflies. Yucca moth
Butterflies are wonderful creatures. I think everyone knows what a butterfly looks like and probably met with 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 lepidopterist (from latin name order of butterflies - Lepidoptera, which translates as "lepidoptera"). And lepidopteris is a person who is simply fond of butterflies.
The largest moth in the world - this is the peacock-eye Atlas (Attacus Atlas)... Its wingspan is over 30 cm and is often mistaken for a bird.
Basically, most butterflies have short life - just a few days. However, there are specimens with a rather long life cycle: The Brixton butterfly is long-lived, its cycle lasts up to 10 months.
In its 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 flies to 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 even 6,000 meters above sea level.
In the blueberry butterfly (Zizula hylax), which lives in Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius, Arabia and the tropical zone of Asia and Australia, the length of the front wing is 6 mm. This is the smallest butterfly in the world.
In addition to the usual tropical butterflies for us, there are also Arctic butterflies. They are inconspicuous in appearance, their wings are not bright, but whitish or almost transparent, like glass. Several species of butterflies that live on the Canadian island of Queen Elizabeth 750 kilometers from the North Pole can be called real polar explorers.
The maximum speed that this little creation can reach is 12 miles per hour, but there are species that reach 50 km / h (31 miles per hour). The fastest flight of butterflies of the hawk family.
The most surprising fact about these creatures is that butterflies need heat from the sun in order to fly.
The most common butterfly in Russia and Siberia is the Peacock Eye. Due to its original design, it is difficult to confuse it with any other: the upper part of the wing has a cherry-brown color and a spot in the form of an eye characteristic of this species, while the bottom is completely black-brown.
The life cycle of these creatures consists of four phases: egg, caterpillar, pupa and imago (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 thousand tiny parts called lenses.
Butterflies are ancient creatures. Their images are present in 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 sailboat, the largest butterfly on the planet.
It is possible to detect it only in 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 cycle of adults (the last stage of life). Such individuals live due to the energy accumulated during the period when the butterfly was still a caterpillar.
The smallest butterfly in the world is considered to be "Blue Dwarf", whose wingspan is only 1.4 cm.
IN rainforest There is a species of butterflies in the New and Old World, the males of which feed on the tears of animals.
Brazilian butterfly calligo another way to protect... Seeing the bird, it rolls over, showing the enemy the wrong side of its wings.
The enemy has no choice but to hastily retreat.
It's all about the drawing 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.
Female butterflies usually live longer and longer than male butterflies. It also looks like people ;-)
Butterflies are excellent stress healers. Doctors of Stockholm are convinced of this. The clinics in this city have greenhouses with butterflies and flowers, where patients are successfully treated for stress.
Butterflies are myopic!
It turns out that the secret of the butterfly is hidden precisely in its scales on its wings. They maintain the temperature balance and also increase the lethality.
But with their blood circulation, everything is simple. No heart, no veins or arteries. All this replaces the vessel located in the abdomen, which passes into the head in the form of a tube.
The pattern on the wings of a butterfly is unique, as are human fingerprints.
Only the hawk moth (Acherontia atropos) has a special organ of "speech" located in the pharynx. This butterfly, with anxiety or a sense of danger, can squeal.
Butterflies weigh about two rose petals.
Migration of butterflies
Among African butterflies, the longest migrations are made by the species Catopsilia florella. Every year from December to February, its representatives, who inhabit the arid regions of the Sahel, fly south in tens of millions. Destination - Zaire - several thousand kilometers from the start.
Unlike migratory species of temperate latitudes, migration is not caused 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 the 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 jamming car engines! With the return of the dry season, butterflies are heading back to the Sahel. Other populations of this species migrate in a similar way, but they fly from southern Africa (Cape South Africa) and head northwest.
Migration behavior is rare in butterflies; it is known only in 200 out of 18,000 diurnal species, and only two dozen of them are comparable to Catopsilia florella in the length and regularity of their flights.
P.S. Interesting fact:In winter, in Southern California, tourists are shown butterfly trees "covered" with monarchs 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 impossible to disturb the monarchs - for this an impressive fine is imposed.
Stockholm hospitals are famous for having butterflies that treat patients' stress.
Bees make the biggest contribution to pollination, followed by butterflies.
Butterflies have a voracious appetite. Some species of these insects can sugar syrup, twice the body weight of the insect.
We love butterflies for their beauty and variety of patterns on their wings. But nature created them to protect against birds that love to feast on insects, but cannot always notice a bright insect that looks like a flower.
Most butterflies cannot fly without heat from the sun.
In the Stone Age, butterflies were among some tribes of the pagan deity the Great Mother.
Butterflies protect their lives from predators through vibration, which they pick up very well.
Cabbage is a very voracious and prolific butterfly. Most of the larvae do not survive or are eaten by birds, otherwise the total mass of these butterflies would three times exceed the mass of all people living on our planet.
In butterflies, life consists of four cycles. Initially, these insects are eggs from which caterpillars emerge. They turn into pupae, from which the butterfly itself flies out. The fourth phase of life, when we see butterflies in flight, is called an imago.
Female butterflies live longer than males of these insects.
The longest diapause in the yucca butterfly. Nevada butterflies make the journey from larva to butterfly in as much as nineteen years. American scientists were able to observe this entire long path of transformation into a butterfly in a biological laboratory.
Butterflies are tiny and huge, variegated and with dull colors, leading a nocturnal or daytime lifestyle. Despite all these differences, they all have one thing in common - they are all very beautiful!
A number of butterflies possess sound communication, and almost all female butterflies release pheromones into the atmosphere for this purpose.
There is such a butterfly as the imperial moth. She has the best of these insects. Males smell the female at a distance of more than eleven kilometers, being in opposition to the wind. Females release an attractate weighing only one ten-thousandth of a milligram with the help of a substance.
The Attacus Altas moth has a wingspan of one third of a meter, so this huge moth is often mistaken for birds.
In the tropics of America and Europe, there are butterflies that feed on animals such as turtles. Males of this species consider it a special treat. But still the vast majority of butterflies feed on nectar and herbal juice containing.
The life span of butterflies is very short; they fly for only a few days and die. But among these insects there is a long-liver. In the Brixton butterfly, the adult life cycle lasts about ten months.
Peacock butterflies are most common in Russia, especially in the Siberian region of the country. It cannot be confused with other butterflies due to its unusual design. The upper wing of this insect is cherry-brownish in color, there is a spot in the form, the lower part of the wing is completely black-brown in color.
A number of butterflies love to eat dung and fruit rot. Such an original gourmet, for example, is the red admiral.
Butterflies have tracheas and tracheoles for breathing, as well as air sacs. They draw oxygen in through the spiracles - the openings in the abdomen.
There are butterflies that have accumulated a lot of energy in the caterpillar phase of life, so when they turn into butterflies, they do not feed at all.
The exoskeleton of the butterfly protects the insect from drying out. This skeleton is located on the outside of the body, it does not allow moisture to escape from the body.
The blue dwarf is the smallest butterfly in the world. The wingspan of this crumb is only 14 millimeters.
The writer V. Nabokov discovered twenty new species of these insects for science. In the collection of the writer there were more than 4300 dried butterflies different types... At the end of his life, Nabokov donated this collection to the University of Lausanne, which has a large museum dedicated to the animal world.
A unique gift was given to Kim Il Sung for his 80th birthday. The loyal soldiers of his army presented the leader of the nation with a military-themed painting made from the wings of four and a half million butterflies.
Alexandra's sailboat butterfly is one of the rarest in the world. This large butterfly lives only in Papua New Guinea. Collectors hunted for a beautiful insect, so there are very few of these butterflies in the wildlife of the island.
Butterflies lay offspring in the same place for a long time.
Butterflies only see three colors: yellow, red, and green.
The calligo butterfly lives in Brazil. She has many enemies, and she came up with an original way to protect herself from predatory insects and birds. Seeing the enemy, she shows the wrong side of the wings, which shows an owl with bulging eyes. The image of this bird is so realistic that the enemies of the calligo quickly fly away, because the owl for many of them is an enemy.
The founder of the world religion, Buddha, addressed butterflies with religious speeches, so the adherents of this doctrine greatly respect these lepidoptera.
Butterflies' myopia is one of the main qualities of these insects, although they have tiny "lenses" for better vision.
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 acquire wings and fly away, in order to then again leave offspring in the form of caterpillars. Butterflies are amazing, and the variety of their species can amaze anyone.
- The smallest butterfly, acetosia, has a wingspan of only about 2 millimeters. The largest, tizania agrippina - up to 28 centimeters.
- Butterflies, like elephants, feed on the trunk. More precisely, the proboscis (see).
- In total, there are about 165 thousand species of butterflies and moths in the world. Yes, exactly thousands! Moreover, most of them prefer to lead a nocturnal lifestyle.
- Hawk moths, night moths, can howl in a wolfish manner. This howling buzz mimics that of a queen bee, allowing the hawk maker to enter the bee hive unhindered and feast on honey, which makes up a fair share of its diet.
- Butterflies are found on all continents except Antarctica (see).
- The eyes of a butterfly are composed of more than a thousand faceted elements each.
- The receptors responsible for taste are found on the paws of butterflies.
- Some species of butterflies in their very short life lay more than a thousand eggs, from which caterpillars then hatch.
- Many other species readily eat butterflies, for example, birds and chameleons (see).
- The northernmost of the butterflies live less than a thousand kilometers from the North Pole on the Canadian island of Queen Elizabeth.
- In China, India and some countries South America the population does not disdain to eat butterflies.
- Some species of butterflies can develop a speed of over 60 km / h during flight, covering a distance equal to twenty to thirty thousand lengths of their own body per 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, dust itself off and fly further.
- Monarch butterflies understand medicinal plants and know how to use them for medical purposes if their offspring need help.
- Butterflies lack an organ like 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 - calipra eustrigata. However, only males feed on blood, while females prefer plant food.
- The skeleton of a butterfly, or rather, an exoskeleton, is not inside its body, but outside. Everything internal organs are inside it.
- The cabbage butterfly is very prolific. If all the offspring of at least one cabbage plant survived, so many of its descendants would be born during the season that they would weigh three times more than all people on Earth put together.
- In China, butterflies are considered a symbol of love and lovers.
Butterflies are creatures of incredible beauty, rather fragile and light. They impress not only with their appearance, but also by the way they are born, proving all the awesomeness of the world around us. At first, caterpillars, rather unpleasant in appearance, they then turn into a cocoon and are reborn into a winged beauty, but, unfortunately, short-lived. We have collected interesting facts about butterflies, because they are able to surprise not only with their color.
1. The smallest butterfly, called acetosia, has a wingspan of no more than 2 millimeters, and the largest, agrippina, has a wingspan of 30 centimeters.
2. An interesting fact about butterflies for children is that, like elephants, these insects take food through the trunk. They have it, of course, of the minimum size and is noticeable.
3. Thanks to selection and the wonders of nature on the planet, there are at least 165 thousand different types these insects.
4. An interesting fact about the swallowtail butterfly. Among all the others, it is the most powerful and fastest, although now it is very rare. Machaon was once met even in Tibet at an altitude of 4.5 kilometers.
5. Moths - exclusively night moths - have an unusual ability. They know how to create a howl vaguely reminiscent of an animal. In fact, this buzzing allows them to pretend to be a queen bee for a while and, having entered the hive, enjoy honey, which is their favorite food.
6. Butterflies sit on top of their food, because their main taste receptors are on their paws.
7. Among the most interesting facts about butterflies is their habitat. They certainly do not live in Antarctica, because the conditions are too harsh, but at the same time they somehow endure the harsh climate of the Canadian island of Queen Elizabeth, which is located less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole.
8. Despite their such short life, from a couple of days to several weeks, moths sometimes manage to lay up to one thousand eggs, from which caterpillars will subsequently appear, and then moths again.
9. An interesting fact about the Apollo butterfly - it is the only one that can live in places where the snow sometimes does not melt all year round and at the same time feel comfortable.
10. Most of the moths are afraid of water, because once falling into it, they will not be able to get out. The voluminous wings get wet and do not allow to take off again, but this does not apply to the lilac moth. Even having plunged completely, she is able to emerge and continue her flight.
11.Special species of these insects can successfully accelerate in flight up to a speed of 60 km / h.
12. Monarch butterflies stand out from the rest for their ability to identify medicinal properties plants. Then they use it in life if their family needs help.
13. An interesting fact from the life of butterflies - some of them, like mosquitoes, can drink blood. This feature is possessed only by the eustrigate calipra, enough rare view and besides, only males are vampires in it, females still prefer a vegetable diet.
14. Moths have a kind of skeleton. It is called an exoskeleton and is placed not inside the body, as in the majority of living beings, but outside. All organs of the insect are inside it.
15. Butterflies do not have a heart, but the structure of their eyes allows them to see and distinguish three key colors - red, green and yellow.
Butterflies are one of the most beautiful creatures. They are associated with spring, beauty, youth. They are a symbol of immortality, happiness, loyalty and love. These mysterious and graceful creatures are a source of poetic inspiration and have become heroes of many myths and legends. But what do we know about them?
Pollen on the wings of butterflies has nothing to do with pollen from plants, from the flowers of which, as many believe, butterflies collect their bright colors. These are small scales that cover the entire body and wings of an insect. It was they who gave the scientific name to butterflies - Lepidoptera - one of the largest orders in the class of insects.
The scales are derivatives of hairs, which consist of a transparent chitinous shell with a cavity inside, have a flat, often very diverse, shape and are pressed against the surface of the wing, overlapping each other like a tile.
Wing coloring
The cavity contains a pigment that gives color to the entire flake. A set of scales with the same or different pigments makes up a bright, often very complex and contrasting wing pattern. The coloring of the wings can be created not only by pigments. In many of our daytime butterflies, as well as in the brightest representatives of the tropics, it occurs due to the interference of light waves. On the surface of the flake, there are very small ribs that, at a certain angle of incidence, reflect light with a certain wavelength.