Butterflies: Facts, Characteristics, Behavior, Diet

Butterflies are well-known invertebrates with symmetrical wings that frequently exhibit incredible colors and designs.

They are insects of the genus Rhopalocera and are members of the order Lepidoptera and have thousands of species. They are ranked second in terms of the most known species within one individual due to the identification of 165,000 species.

The Greek term “Lepidoptera” translates to “scaly wings.” Because the insects in this group have wings coated in hundreds of small scales arranged in rows, the name fits them nicely.

The butterfly’s attractiveness is due to its colorful scale patterning, which is particular to each species. As certain species can even thrive in polar regions, these lovely creatures can be found all over the planet.

However, the majority of them choose warmer climates and lusher vegetation. For them to survive, things like the weather and how much food they eat are important.

This animal profile covers everything you need to know about butterflies, including their taxonomy, behavior, food, reproduction, distribution, and habitat.

Scientific Classification

Characteristics

5 Interesting Facts About Butterflies

1. Butterflies don’t live too long

Sadly, the lifespan of a butterfly is not very long. Most of them only live a few weeks, although the brimstone butterfly, which has the longest lifespan of all adult butterflies, can live for up to 13 months. ¹

However, the life expectancy of many butterfly species varies, depending on a variety of circumstances. These elements consist of the following:

Size

In general, larger butterflies live longer than their smaller counterparts.

Temperature

Since butterflies are cold-blooded, their lifespan is likewise influenced by the outside temperature. Because they spend more time in warmer climes, tropical and migratory butterflies typically live longer.

In addition, butterflies that lay eggs in cold weather will not hatch until warmer weather returns.

In captivity

Because they are constantly exposed to nature, butterflies in the wild typically live much shorter lives.

In the wild, these insects face predators like birds and larger insects, and conditions like abrupt temperature changes or habitat changes can significantly reduce a butterfly’s lifespan.

Even while captive butterflies live relatively briefly, they almost invariably outlive their natural lifespans. This is because they have easy access to food as caterpillars, a secure environment while they are pupae, and an environment free from predators as adults.

2. They taste with their feet

Butterflies lack the same taste receptors as mammals do. They don’t need to chew their food; they primarily use their mouth as a straw to suck it up.

Though they do not use their mouths, they do taste their food. Their feet do the job! It seems absurd that an animal’s feet could act as taste organs.

Butterflies can taste with their feet because the chemoreceptors on their legs are connected to neurons that can distinguish between edible chemicals and those that are not.²

3. Butterflies can see colors

Scientists have examined butterflies’ vision for a sufficient amount of time to conclude that in addition to seeing color, they are also much more adept at experiencing it than we are.

Butterflies use their color vision to find food. They exhibit UV, violet, blue, green, and red wavelength peaks sensitivity, consistent with color constancy.

In the wild, these insects eat nectar from flowers of different hues in bright sunlight, in shady locations, and on overcast days.

Human eyes are entirely different from those of butterflies. For instance, each of our two eyes has a lens. In contrast, butterflies have thousands of microscopic lenses with six sides in each of their eyes and three different types of photoreceptors.

Each microscopic lens is connected to a lengthy tube named ommatidium. And each ommatidium has many photoreceptors functioning to detect various light wavelengths.³

They share (in some ways) the same visual abilities as humans, but butterflies’ perceptions of color, depth, and field of vision differ from how people experience theirs. In other words, they have physical features that enable them to see colors that are invisible to us.

They may be able to see colors that are incomprehensible to us because our eyes aren’t capable of seeing as many hues as theirs. It is, therefore, incredibly challenging to describe a butterfly’s vision.

4. They can’t fly in the cold

Butterflies are cold-blooded flying insects. They must warm up their muscles to continue flying if they become too cold and lose the ability to fly.

Butterflies can fly in air that is 60° to 108° F, while the ideal range is between 82° and 100° F. Few people can fly when it is below 60 degrees.

Although certain species can survive in subfreezing temperatures, they cannot fly in the cold. They will perish if they become wet in below-freezing conditions.

5. Butterflies have a liquid-only diet

Fluids are a butterfly’s main dietary source. They merely lack the necessary chewing equipment.

Butterflies use their proboscis, which mimics and functions as straw, to ingest nectar or other liquid nourishment. It enables them to extract the liquid nectar, rich in sugar, from the flower’s inside.

General Description

The butterfly is a flying insect that has a small body and huge, frequently vibrant wings. The head, thorax, and abdomen comprise the body, as in all insects.

Each of the three segments that make up the thorax has two legs. Unlike moths, which may have threadlike or feathery antennae, most families have clubbed antennae.

The long proboscis can be coiled when not used to slurp nectar from flowers. Butterflies have a four-stage life cycle because, like most insects, they completely transform. Wingless adults deposit their eggs on the food plant their offspring, known as caterpillars, would feed on.⁴

The caterpillars develop, sometimes extremely quickly, before pupating in a chrysalis once they are completely grown. The adult insect climbs out of the pupal skin after the metamorphosis is over, and once its wings have dried and grown, it takes flight.

Some species, particularly in the tropics, have multiple generations yearly, while others only have one. A few butterflies that live in cold climates may take several years to complete their life cycle.

The four scale-covered wings of adult butterflies are what give the Lepidoptera family its name (Ancient Greek λεπίς lepís, scale + πτερόν pterón, wing).⁵

These scales give butterfly wings their color. Melanins, which give them their black and brown colors, and uric acid derivatives and flavones, which give them their yellow colors, are pigments on the scales.

However, many of the blue, green, red, and iridescent colors are produced by structural coloration, which is caused by the scales’ and hairs’ microscopic structures.

Butterflies are complex and intelligent animals. Numerous activities can be used to describe their daily life. If you pay close attention, you might encounter butterflies engaged in feeding, bathing, puddling, mating, egg-laying, hibernating, migrating, camouflaging, etc.

Distribution and Habitat

All continents save Antarctica, which is a cold and dry place, and are home to butterflies. Since they are ectotherms, they enjoy spending time in warm, tropical regions.

They also do not stay in some arid deserts because no food sources are available (this is one of the main factors that influences where butterflies live).

There is no easy way to pinpoint the precise location of butterflies because they can be found in a wide variety of habitats, including woods, salt marshes, grasslands, wetlands, coastal areas, and even big sand dunes. Even some live a significant portion of their life underground.

Two desert-dwelling species, Empress Leillia (Asterocampa leillia) and Elada checkerspot (Texola elada) eat the succulent plants that thrive in deserts.

In deep rainforests, other species, such as the Blue morphos (Morpho peleides), thrive and feed on the flowering plants and trees present there. Some live in temperate plains and meadows, hopping from wildflower to wildflower.

While many butterflies spend their entire lives in confined spaces, some prefer to migrate. During the winter, they will move to areas with harsher weather.

The Monarch is a well-known migratory butterfly that may be found all over North America, from Central America north to southern Canada and from the Atlantic to Pacific coasts.

They go north while resting in Mexico during the winter and congregating there to stay warm when it’s warm.

Reproduction and Mating Process

The next stage in a butterfly’s life cycle is “mating,” which occurs after they have finished their developmental stages and transformed into adults (males typically have to wait for one to two days after emerging from the chrysalis before they can mate, but then they must repeatedly mate, whereas females can mate right away, with some species having multiple mating cycles).

Although entomologists are still unsure of what causes the reproductive behaviors in butterflies, it is thought that some species may be affected by the environment.

Butterfly mating and reproduction often start in the spring or early summer, especially after the insects have finished their lengthy migration or come out of their winter hibernation.

The process starts with courtships, in which the male either settles into a noticeable perch and waits for a female to fly by or moves to a female of his own species whom he has determined to be the ideal mating partner, flies above or behind her, and then vigorously flaps his wings a little more than usual, releasing dust of microscopic scales carrying pheromones above the female’s antennae. The pheromones stimulate females’ desire for sexual activity.

The males will then do a brief courtship dance since they are anxious to impress their possible partners. These dances are specific to that species of butterfly flight patterns.  The female may join the man in his extravagant dance if she feels attracted to him.

They will locate a spot to mate on the ground or while perched on plants and trees after their connection has been established (some butterfly species, such as the Green-veined White, can fly while mating to escape predators.) The duration of the mating ritual might range from a few minutes to several hours (often up to 16 hours).

When two butterflies are ready to mate, they tilt their faces away and press their abdomen tips together. The males subsequently give the ladies a package of sperm (spermatophores). Enough nutrients are present in the spermatophores for the female to fertilize and lay the eggs.

The male butterfly frequently spends time hunting for food to make a higher-quality spermatophore because these nutrients are crucial to the mating process. To hold the females in place, these males have specialized clasping structures at the end of their abdomens. 

The male (who may pass away a few weeks before mating) has a few strategies to ensure his sperm will prevail over his male rivals. The female may mate with just one, or occasionally with multiple partners, per season.

The male may occasionally shower the female with an unpleasant scent to keep her from molting with anyone else. To prevent further sperm from entering, several species can block the female’s opening.

However, fertilization doesn’t start right away, even after molting is over. The female can keep the sperm inside a unique sac called a bursa until she is ready to give birth.

The female butterfly must look for a suitable plant to lay her eggs on after mating with a male (she cannot lay the eggs on just any plant). She must be extremely picky when selecting a plant since the caterpillars that will hatch from her eggs will be highly selective about what they consume.

She can identify the correct plant species based on the color and form of the leaf. She might, however, use her feet to rap on the leaf to make sure. This causes a scratch on the leaf’s surface, releasing a distinctive plant odor.

She will begin laying eggs after she has located the right plant species. The sperm that has been kept in her body since mating is used to fertilize her eggs as she is depositing them.

While some butterflies only ever deposit one egg, others may do so in bunches (a single cluster may contain hundreds or even thousands of eggs at a time).

The eggs are safe from predators because the female produces a sticky material that makes them attach to whatever surface she chooses to lay them on, such as the stem or the underside of a leaf. Each species’ eggs have a distinct look.

They can be round, smooth, oval, bumpy, cylindrical, and wrinkled, among other shapes and textures. The majority are tiny, only one to three millimeters in diameter, or roughly the size of a pinhead.

Only 2% of the female’s eggs hatch into adulthood despite her huge egg production. The majority perish from being eaten by predators or from weather-related causes such as heavy rain, wind, etc.

Monarch Butterfly

The monarch butterfly breeds from March to April. On average, female monarch butterflies lay between 100 and 300 eggs, but records exist of female monarch butterflies depositing as many as 1,000 eggs. On a milkweed plant, these insects lay their white to off-white colored eggs.

Red Admiral Butterfly

April to September is the red admiral butterfly’s breeding season. On the leaves of any nettle plant, the females deposit about 100 green to cream-colored, slightly hairy eggs.

Painted Lady Butterfly

They can reproduce all year round. On average, a female-painted lady butterfly lays 500 eggs. She lays her cream-colored eggs on the leaves of soybean plants because they like those plants.

Black Swallowtail Butterfly

The breeding season for black swallowtail butterflies lasts from late April to early June. These insects typically prefer the leaves of the parsley plant to deposit their eggs on. Around 200–430 small, pale yellow eggs are laid by the female.

Orange Sulfur Butterfly

This kind of butterfly can deposit eggs during warm weather. Up to 700 eggs can be laid by females. The egg is typically cream in color, but as it ages, it turns crimson. These eggs are laid on the alfalfa plant’s leaves.

Common Mormon Butterfly

The annual breeding season for the common Mormon butterfly is from January to April. On average, the female lays between 100 and 350 light yellow eggs.

Typically, citrus trees like mandarin orange or key lime trees are where the eggs are placed. The egg will begin to take on a light brown hue as it matures.

Cabbage White Butterfly

The large white butterfly, often known as the cabbage white butterfly, can deposit eggs from May to September. In batches of 10 to 20, the female lays a few hundred eggs.

The leaves of plants in the mustard family, including horseradish, broccoli, cabbage, and others, are where these insects typically deposit their yellow eggs.

The eggs may hatch in days, months, or even years, depending on the environment. Caterpillars develop and lose their skin multiple times before forming a chrysalis or pupa. Depending on the species, a fully-fledged winged adult emerges from the chrysalis days, months, or even years later, and the cycle repeats.

While most butterfly species reproduce sexually, the mulberry silkworm (Bombyx mori) is one species that can reproduce asexually. Some of these moths reproduce parthenogenically, producing offspring with nearly the same DNA as their parents.⁶

If the original parent was especially fit, this could be advantageous for the species; yet, if the parent was an inferior specimen, it could potentially spell disaster for the entire clutch of young.

Diet

Although butterflies appear too little and cannot ingest anything, this is untrue. Like other creatures, they require food to survive. However, some of them, particularly the males, have been seen to consume puddles, wet gravel, tears, scat, and even sweat in addition to eating their own food.

They do this to collect minerals and salt, which they will then give to the female butterflies to aid in the development of the eggs.

Except for one species (Feniseca tarquinius), all butterflies are herbivores that solely eat liquids as part of their diet. They have mouthpieces/feeding tubes that dangle from their heads like straws.

They use this tube to reach deep within a flower and pull out the nectar which is their preferred and main source of nourishment, as they lack teeth with which to bite or chew. A “proboscis” is a structure that resembles a long tongue that may uncoil when it’s time to eat while also coiling up into a ball when not in use.

Ixora, lantana, fire spike, jungle cucumber, zinnia, Mexican sunflower, milkweed, coral vines, etc., are some flowering plants that provide a lot of nectar for butterflies. Azalea, coneflowers, clover, daisies, meadow flowers, snapdragons, honeysuckle, and dandelions are some more flowers they like to drink from.

They do not only consume foods high in sugar, like nectars. They also feed on the ooze coming from trees and animal excrement, sap, salty liquids like human sweat, and even the juice from rotting fruits.

They consume completely ripe and decaying fruit because as it begins to break down, it softens and releases more liquid. Bananas, apples, and pears are some of the fruits they enjoy.

Fun fact: Butterflies taste the food they have landed on with their feet.

Predators and Threats

According to European studies, the number of grassland butterfly species has decreased by over 50% since the early 1990s, and in the United Kingdom, 75% of all butterfly species are in decline.⁷

Five butterflies have become extinct in the United States alone since 1950; an additional 29 are classified as endangered nationally, and six are classified as threatened.

All 800 butterfly species in the United States were evaluated by NatureServe, one of the top data sources on rare and endangered species. It was discovered that 19% are currently in danger of going extinct.

Most butterfly species in danger of going extinct are uncommon endemics or species with a restricted geographic range or very particular environmental needs. Lepidopterists across the country, though, have noticed a reduction in widely dispersed butterflies.

What is happening in our global environment to bring such grave losses? Butterflies have numerous concerns, such as habitat loss, exotic plants, disease, pesticides, and climate change. Negative effects may also result from more limited hazards, such as overgrazing and mowing along roadsides.

Various predators hunt butterflies, such as birds, spiders, lizards, small animals, and even other insects. These predators are on the prowl for food and trying to pounce on whatever prey is most accessible or nearby.

The butterfly is sometimes viewed as easy prey because it stands out with its vividly colored wings and isn’t particularly swift.

One of the few exceptions to being preyed upon is the Monarch butterfly. This is because they consumed milkweed as caterpillars, which tends to give predators a terrible taste.

Butterflies are most at risk from habitat loss and change brought on by urban, suburban, and rural development. Numerous butterfly species are also in danger due to widespread pesticide usage, climate change, and invasive species, which have both direct and indirect effects on native host plants.

The destruction of habitats and fragmentation of migration routes caused by human activity pose a hazard to migratory and non-migratory butterflies. 

Behavior

Butterflies display a surprising variety of behaviors. You might encounter butterflies:

Nectaring

Although butterflies lack teeth, they do have a proboscis. A proboscis, essentially an extended snout that can straighten under hydrostatic pressure, enables them to sip nectar from blooms resembling tubes. Their proboscis rolls up on the back of their head when not feeding.

Puddling

When it gets too hot, many male butterflies can be seen slurping at the moisture in puddles or damp sand and soil. When these butterflies drink from these places, they’re getting more than just water! The salts found in this water are helping them as well. These salts are supposed to boost a male butterfly’s fertility.

Basking

Butterflies are ectotherms, which means they can’t control their body temperature and produce enough heat from their metabolism to provide them with the energy and heat they need to fly.

To survive, they rely on heat from the sun. It’s possible to observe butterflies with their wings spread out, soaking up the sun’s warmth. As a result of their need to absorb heat from their surroundings, most of them have darkly colored bodies.

Hibernating

Because they are cold-blooded, butterflies cannot endure the winter’s harsh temperatures while they are active. By hibernating in sheltered areas, butterflies may endure the cold. They can hibernate at any stage (egg, larva, pupa, or adult). 

Mating

Also, butterflies mate. The male transmits sperm to the female to fertilize her eggs, and they achieve this by uniting the tips of their abdomens.

Egg-laying

The female butterfly must look for a plant to lay her eggs on after mating with a male. She must be extremely picky when selecting a plant since the caterpillars that will hatch from her eggs will be highly selective about what they consume. She can identify the correct plant species based on the color and form of the leaf.

She might, however, use her feet to rap on the leaf to make sure. This causes a scratch on the leaf’s surface, releasing a distinctive plant odor. She will begin laying eggs after she has located the right plant species.

The female produces a sticky material that helps the eggs adhere to whichever surface she deposits them on, such as the stem or the underside of a leaf.

The sperm that has been kept in her body since mating is used to fertilize her eggs as she is depositing them. While some butterflies only lay one egg, others may do so in bunches.

Migrating

Some butterfly species move away from bad weather. Most species migrate over short distances, whereas monarchs go over 3000 miles. Butterflies can also escape the cold by moving to a warmer area. Some butterflies migrate short distances, like the painted lady and cabbage butterfly, while others, like the Monarch, migrate thousands of kilometers.

Camouflaging

Butterflies have evolved a variety of passive defense mechanisms. One way is to utilize camouflage to make oneself less noticeable. The caterpillars may have characteristics that enable them to blend into the backdrop or be colored protectively. For instance, many caterpillars are green, making it challenging to spot them because they blend in with the host leaf. 

Male vs. Female

Depending on the species, it might be quite easy to distinguish between male and female butterflies or challenging. Some species, like the Painted Lady butterfly, have same colors and markings; their anatomical characteristics are the only way to tell them apart. Some organisms have sexual dimorphism, which causes the two sexes to appear entirely different.

Female butterflies typically have bigger, rounder abdomens, whereas males typically have more slender ones. The forewings of some species can be used to distinguish them from other species.

Male hairstreaks have triangular forewings, whereas female hairstreaks have more rounded forewings. The Monarch has subtle variations in wing patterns. The hindwing of males has a circular black dot absent in females.

The wing veins of the males are likewise somewhat thinner. Depending on the species, male and female butterflies have different appearances. The patterns and colors of the wings are the most distinct variations.

For instance, male monarch butterflies lack the single black mark that appears on each of the lower sections of their female counterparts’ wings.

Male and female butterflies differ in size generally. Females need bigger wings and abdomens to hold their hundreds of eggs every clutch, so they appear slightly larger than the males. But overall size varies depending on the species. Monarch butterfly males, for instance, are a little bigger than females.

Even though we can often tell a butterfly’s sex by observing the most obvious differences in its appearance, such as the scent spots on the male Monarch or the wing pattern and color of tiger swallowtails, the best way to tell a butterfly is male or female—especially if you are unfamiliar with each species—is by observing its genitalia.

At the base of a butterfly’s abdomen is the genitalia. Males typically open their claspers during mating to grab the female’s abdomen. The butterflies will stay joined to the female’s abdomen until mating is finished. On rare occasions, you might even encounter this in nature.

Male and female butterflies display different behaviors. For instance, the male dingy swallowtail butterfly repeatedly circles his nearly 350-foot-wide territory to keep out other males. Females, on the other hand, fly randomly and without much of a pattern in search of food.

Checking to see if a butterfly lays eggs is another method of determining its gender. If this insect is captured and kept overnight, chances are good that the next morning the female will have given birth to a brood. If there are no eggs, the butterfly is most likely a male.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Thoughts

From the colors and transparency of their wings to their delicate shape, butterflies appeal to most humans as dreamy insects, and we associate them with everything good.

There’s so much more to these little critters than meets the eye, and this article gives you a little exposè into their world.

Facts Sources:

1. Brimstone. [online] Butterfly Conservation.
2. Sensory Systems. Monarch Watch.
3. Colour Vision: Random Retina of Butterflies Explained. [online] ScienceDirect.
4. The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. [online] Butterfly Life Cycle.
5. About: Lepidopterology. [online] DBPedia.
6. E., J. Parthenogenesis Among the Lepidoptera. Nature 5, 149–150 (1871).
7. Warren, Martin S. et al. “The decline of butterflies in Europe: Problems, significance, and possible solutions.” National Academy of Sciences vol. 118,2 (2021)