Interesting Facts About Butterflies

When I first started taking photos of butterflies I realized I knew very little about them.

I had a few questions about butterflies, so I put together a list and started seeking the answers. It was not as easy as I thought it would be! A lot of the information I found was sometimes conflicting, so I ended up checking several sources, and below is a compilation of the gleaning I gathered from the many sites I visited.

How long do butterflies live?

I found many different answers for this question. There are some species that only live one day, while other can live for several months. On average a typical butterfly lives around 2 weeks, but there are so many variables it is hard to determine exactly. Type of butterfly, weather conditions, food source, time of year they hatch, all play a part in answering that question. Monarchs live around 9 months, which is a long to me for a butterfly!

Where do butterflies sleep at night?

Some experts say that butterflies do not sleep, they only rest. When they do rest (or take a butterfly nap) it is usually in a protected area such as a rock crevice, or often they will attach themselves to the underside of a leaf.

How many species of butterflies are there?

The best count I was able to find is about 24,000 different species.  Moths have many more, around 140,000 species.

Where did they get the name “butterfly” from?

Now you would think there would be a very clear and direct answer for this simple question! Surprisingly, I found different “guesses” as to where the term “butterfly” came from.

One source claims they use to fly around the farmers when they were churning butter, and therefore were called “butter fly’s”

Some believe it is based on the yellow color of many common butterflies, while others claim that people believed that butterflies were actually witches or fairies that came into the house at night and stole butter.

The scientific name for “butterfly” is “Lepidoptera” which means “scaly wings”.

How do butterflies mate?

When butterflies mate, the male or female will perform courtship movements and release pheromones, the butterflies will turn abdomen to abdomen and then mate for an hour or more. Sometimes they will even fly around with either the male of female dangling. The male butterfly will pass the female a sperm packet that is used for fertilizing eggs.

How many eggs do butterfly lay, and where?

After mating, the female butterfly will lay between 100-200 eggs. One of thevideos I found shows a female laying eggs, which was very fascinating. They lay their eggs on tree branches, twigs, leaves, on plants that will provide food for the larva.

What is the difference between a moth and a butterfly?

One very big difference is the type of cocoon they emerge from. Moths come from cocoons spun in silk, usually close to the ground, while a butterfly emerges from a chrysalis, which is usually harder and most likely will hang from a tree.

Other differences are the type of antennae, butterflies having straight antennae with a bulb, or club shape at the end, while most moths antennae often appear feathery.

Their bodies are slightly different too, butterflies usually have long straight bodies, while the moth may be plump and furry.

Moths are more likely to be out in the evening as they are nocturnal, as for butterflies they are diurnal and prefer to fly in the daytime.

Another difference is most moths are drab in color, while butterflies have colorful markings.

BUT, there are some moths that are colorful and fly during the day, and there are some butterflies that are drab in color!

There are no butterfly species that are considered pests as there are moths, the pesky type of moth that likes to eat your clothes or invade your pantry.

What do butterflies eat?

Actually, butterflies do not eat, they only drink liquids, like nectar and sugar water. They have a long straw like tongue, called a proboscis, that they drink the nectar with. When they are not drinking, it is coiled up like a lawn hose. As for moths, some do not drink or eat as adults, having consumed all of their nutrition for their lifetime in the larvae stage. How boring would that be!

Are Butterflies beneficial to the environment?

Besides bringing a little beauty to our world, butterflies are second to bees in pollinating our plants. They are also part of an important food chain, (sad but necessary) for song birds.

Some butterflies, like Monarchs, feed on a poisonous plant like Milkweed as caterpillars, so when they emerge as adults they have built in protection from some predators. Birds that eat Monarchs will get very sick, and learn quickly to leave the bright orange colored butterflies alone!

How fast, and how far, do butterflies fly?

Each species is different. Some butterflies attain a speed of 5 MPH, while some have been known to top out at speeds up to 32 MPH.

Butterflies migrate like birds do. They are cold blooded insects, which means they have no way of warming themselves, so they must seek out warm climates. In fact, a butterfly can not fly if the temperature is too cold.

Monarch’s migrate the furthest, some flying up to 2,000 miles to gather in Mexico at their breeding grounds. That’s a lot of wing flapping!