Beautiful butterflies

Everyone has seen beautiful butterflies in the gardens and public parks. Not only the bright colours and the artistic combinations of designs on the wings are extremely attractive but the unique way in which they fly is rather flattering.

Butterflies belong to the order Lepidoptera, and it is believed that there are about 17,500 species of butterflies worldwide.

They come in variety of sizes. The smallest species ‘Pygmy’ has a wing span just over an inch, whereas the largest species, New Guinea’s Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing measures up to 12 inches from wingtip to wingtip.

Like other insects, butterflies possess a hard exoskeleton, three pairs of joint legs, large compound eyes and three main body parts: head, thorax and abdomen. On the head are located the eyes, ante-antennae and proboscis. Two pairs of wings are attached to the thorax. The abdomen contains the vital organs. Adult butterflies have mouth parts shaped into a long coiled tube, allowing them to feed flower nectar and liquids.

The lifecycle of a butterfly is simple. From the egg to the adult stage, they undergo series of changes known as metamorphosis. The female butterflies lay their eggs singly or in clusters. The eggs hatch sooner or later into caterpillars. The caterpillars have chewing mouth parts and eat the host plant most of the time. After shedding its skin several times, it suspends itself by a self-made silken thread and is transformed into a ‘pupa’. The pupa stage lasts for days to months and then a fully developed winged adult butterfly emerges and the cycle begins anew.

Like birds and all the other insects, butterflies are cold-blooded (cannot regulate their body temperature). The average lifespan for an adult butterfly is 20 to 40 days. Some species live no longer than four days, others may live for six months. Like most insects, butterflies are nearsighted, and are more attracted to large stands of a particular flower than those planted singly.

To watch butterflies at a close distance is fun, especially for children. For this purpose, artificial puddles could be made in one’s garden by burying a plastic bucket up to the rim, filling it with gravel and sand, and then pouring in sweet drinks or water.

The level of water must be kept slightly below the level of the rim. Some over-ripe fruits may be kept around the artificial puddle as an extra-attraction to the visiting butterflies.

There is another way to attract maximum butterflies to your garden by planting food plants for the females to lay their eggs.

Here are some more interesting facts about for keen readers.

• Butterflies are found throughout the world except the continent of Antarctica.

• The greatest threat to butterflies comes from residential, commercial and agricultural developments. Climatic changes and their long-distance migration also threaten butterflies.

• The caterpillar’s first meal is its own egg shell.

• Like human beings, butterflies cannot see infrared light but they can see ultraviolet, which guides them to many flowers with nectar sources.

• All butterflies smell through their club-shaped antennae.

• Some butterflies cover very long distances during migration e.g. monarch butterfly covers a distance of 1000 miles.

• Some varieties camouflage themselves perfectly to their surroundings. To mislead the predators, caterpillars of certain butterflies imitate snake or bird-droppings.