Category Biology

Butterflies lay almost a thousand eggs, but only a few of them survive. Most female butterflies lay eggs on leaves.

     A few of them release their eggs while flying. One such example is the grass feeding butterflies. Some species lay one egg at a time, others lay eggs in a small clusters, while others lay hundreds at a time.

     First, the female butterflies choose the correct food plant for their caterpillars. Then they walk on the leaves carefully, to make sure it belongs to the right plant species. The newly laid eggs are yellowish-white in colour. The eggs are protected by a hard-ridged outer layer of shell, called the chorion. This is lined with a coating of wax, which prevents the egg from drying out before the larva has had time to fully develop.

    The egg stage lasts a few weeks in most butterflies, but eggs laid close to winter, go through a resting stage, and the hatching may take place only in spring

The butterfly has a wonderful life cycle which has four different stages. From an egg, it becomes a caterpillar, then a pupa, and finally, a butterfly.

       Butterflies in their first stage look completely different from the final stage. Fully grown butterflies lay eggs on the food plant. Their larvae, also known as caterpillars, feed from these plants. They may eat once or twice their own weight in leaves each day. The caterpillars grow very fast. They may shed their skins four or five times.

        When they become fully developed, they enter the third stage in their life cycle, called pupa. It’s a state of complete rest. Different types of caterpillars pupate in different ways. Some rest in their cocoons, which they make using thread from their mouths. Others hide in hollow parts of trees. The pupa stage may last from weeks to months.

      It is during this pupa stage, that the caterpillar grows into a beautiful butterfly. When it comes out, it will be wet. After its wings have expanded and dries, it flies away immediately.

      Some types of butterflies in the tropical areas have several generations in a year, while others have a single generation. In some cold regions, it takes them several years to complete their whole life cycle

Even though both butterflies and dragonflies are insects, both of them belong to different orders. Butterflies belong to the order Lepidoptera and dragonflies belong to the order Odonata.

      Butterflies and dragonflies differ in their life cycles. They also differ in their choices of habitat, diet, and morphology. Butterflies can be found in various environments ranging from rainforests to mountains.

      Dragonflies like to be around moist areas such as wetlands, ponds, streams, and lakes. Butterflies will uncoil their proboscis or feeding tube and drink nectar from flowers, whereas dragonflies much prefer flying insects like bees.

          Dragonflies have two pairs of wings that are transparent, straight, and have few veins. But the wings of butterflies are scaly

Butterflies are insects that belong to an order named Lepidoptera, which includes moths too.

      Even though butterflies belong to the ‘insect’ category, they are significantly different from other insects. All insects have three main divisions to their bodies: head, thorax, and abdomen. Insects have their skeleton around the bodies, not inside them, like the mammals.

      Structurally, butterflies are like all other insects, but their most important difference is the scale covering on wings and body. Unlike other insects, they also have the ability to coil up their feeding tube, or proboscis. All insects have six legs attached to the thorax, although some butterflies have shortened front legs.

     The world’s most abundant creatures are the insects, whose known species outnumber all other animals and the plants combined.

Butterflies are known as flying flowers because of their colorful bodies and wings.

     They come under the category of ‘insect’. A butterfly has six legs, four wings, and two antennae.

      The thin, delicate lines that make them colorful are called scales. Most butterflies are harmless. You can find butterflies every-where in the world, except Antarctica. Butterflies are also an important part of nature because they make the flowers bloom by cross pollination. Cross pollination means, pollinating a flower or plant with pollen from another flower or plant.