Fascinating Facts About Butterflies

When you think of butterflies, the first thing that comes to mind is probably the colourful flutter of wings...but there is so much more than initially meets the eye! Take a look below at some of the fascinating things about butterflies

• Butterflies range in size from a tiny 1/8 inch to a huge almost 12 inches.

• Butterflies weigh only as much as two rose petals, but can fly thousands of miles.

• Butterflies can’t hear, but they can feel vibrations.

• Butterflies “smell” with their antennae and “taste” with their feet.

• Most butterflies live 20 to 40 days. However, some species live only 3 or 4 days, while a few survive up to 10 months.

• Butterflies don't have mouths that allow them to bite or chew. Adult butterflies do not eat, they only drink.

• Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.

• Antarctica is the only continent on which no Lepidoptera have been found.

• There are about 24,000 species of butterflies. The moths are even more numerous: about 140,000 species of them were counted all over the world.

• Many butterflies are territorial and fight, chasing others out of their territory.

• Butterflies can see ultraviolet light, light invisible to the human eye.

• Butterflies have strong muscles in their thorax which force their wings up and down on a fulcrum basis.

• They actually go in a slanted figure 8 motion that propels them forward through the air in the same principle as an airplane.

• Most butterflies prefer flowers that are pink, red, purple, or yellow and that are open all day.

• Female butterflies are usually bigger and live longer than males.

• Adult butterflies are active in the day and moths are active at night.

• Adult butterflies communicate through chemical cues - the males produce chemicals called pheromones to seduce the females.

• When it is cloudy or in the night, the adult butterfly rest by hanging upside down from leaves or twigs.

• Butterfly wings get their color from tiny scales

• The Queen Alexandra’s birdwing from the island of New Guinea is the largest butterfly; it can have a wingspan of 11 inches.

• Most butterflies make no sound, but some in Florida and Texas make a loud clicking sound with their wings.