Butterflies excite the imagination like no other living creatures.
For centuries, poets have written about butterflies, songs dedicated to them, fanciers have collected them.
Their wings have been used in crafts and art.

The insect order of butterflies and moths is called Lepidoptera;
there are over 11,000 species in North America alone. About 700 are Butterflies and the rest are moths.

There are two kinds of color in the butterfly's wing: pigmented and structural.
The former includes the white of the wings and all the beautiful yellows and oranges.
Which are derived from a butterfly waste product called urea.
The body's chemicals produce the brown, blacks, and reds.

The magnificent color of butterfly wings does not come from pigmentation directly on the wing,
But from the tiny scales that hang on the wing like shingles on a house roof.
These scales are so small they look like powder when rubbed onto the fingers.

The most beautiful colors in the wings are structural and they are produced in the same way that
colors are produced by a glass prism when it is struck by light.

It is a well known fact that bees,wasps,hornets,and ants will sting to defend themselves,
But did you know that some caterpillars will give you a nasty sting too.
These stinging caterpillars have hollow quill-like hairs, connected to poison glands.
The reaction from the stings can be a mild itching to severe pain to dermatitis to even intestinal disturbances.

The butterfly's common name has a pleasant derivation.
It comes from the resemblance between the color of the common sulphur butterfly and freshly churned butter.

Adult butterflies do not go to the bathroom.
Occasionally adult butterflies drink so much
they must release a fine spray of liquid from their abdomen, but it is mostly pure water.

Different butterfly species have different life spans.
An average butterfly species has an adult life span of 2 weeks or less.
No adult butterfly can live more than a year.

The Mourning Cloak and some related tortoiseshells and anglewings that hatch in early summer may live almost a year.
It over winters as an adult and then, mates and lay eggs the following spring.

Monarchs and Swallowtails may live about a month in the summer,
but the Monarchs that migrate to Mexico or California may live up to 6 months.

Butterflies use their senses of sight, touch, hearing, smell, and taste to survive in the world,
find food and mates, migrate, and avoid predators.

Butterflies have compound eyes and simple eyes.
They see very differently from us; they can also see ultraviolet rays.

Butterflies have (sensory hairs) on the insect's entire body, and can feel the environment.
They also give the insect information about the wind while it is flying.

A butterfly's antennae, palps, legs,and many other parts of the body are studded with sense receptors
that are used to smell. The sense of smell is used
for finding food, and for finding mates (the female smelling the male's pheromones).
A butterfly's feet have sense organs that can taste the sugar in nectar,
letting the butterfly know if something is good to eat. Some females taste host plants using organs on their legs to find places to lay their eggs.

Butterflies hear sounds through their wings.

Butterflies almost defenseless creatures. They rely on a variety of strategies to protect them from predators.

CAMOUFLAGE

Most butterflies protect themselves by using camouflage.
Some blend into their environment so well that is it almost impossible to spot them when they are
resting on a branch.
Some butterflies look like dead leaves (like the Indian leaf).

POISON
Some butterflies are poisonous. When a predator,
like a bird, eats one of these butterflies it becomes sick, vomits violently, and quickly learns
not to eat this type of butterfly.

MIMICRY
mimicry is when a non-poisonous species has markings similar to a poisonous species and gains
protection from this similarity.
Since many predators have become sick from
eating the poisonous butterfly, they will avoid any similar looking animals in the future.
An example is the Viceroy which mimics the poisonous Monarch.

FLYING
Flying is a major defense of butterflies.
The speed varies among butterfly species. The fastest butterflies
can fly at about 30 mile per hour or faster. Slow flying butterflies fly about 5 mph.

Not all butterflies migrate
and wing their way from colder climates to
southern habitats during the winter as the Monarchs do.
There are some species that hibernate to survive during the cold temperatures of winter in their usual habitats.
The sugar in their bloodstream acts like anti-freeze, and is said to be 300 times more effective, than anti-freeze in our cars.

FOUR MILES UP...

is not too much altitude for some butterflies.