Butterflies are extremely beautiful insects. Worldwide there are about 265,000 species between moths and butterflies. They currently occupy the second position in the number of animals of this type throughout the world. Almost all butterfly species eat plants. Some exceptions eat meat. Even wool.
The average life expectancy in a butterfly can last about twenty-four hours and last up to a few months. This depends on the type of species. So his life is quite simple; they can’t waste time. As soon as they are born and feed the minimum to survive, they begin the search for the couple to lay the egg.
Butterflies and their great help
Apart from their beauty, they are extremely important in our ecosystem. They are of great help in pollination, since they are in charge of moving the pollen extracted from the flowers to other plants. Apart from this function, they have many more. For example, they are excellent thermometers to know the diversity and health status of the ecosystem in which they live. Butterflies are easy to follow and study. They depend on plants to live, so by observing butterflies you can draw conclusions about the ecosystem.
Courtship and life of butterflies
The way of courting is never usually similar. The only thing in common is the tactic of the males flying around the female. With these flights they manage to surround the female with the smell of her pheromones. It is something similar to testing the territory and creating the right environment. At the end of intercourse, the male, with a somewhat sticky secretion, can cover where he has deposited the semen. He does this with the intention of being the only one and that his young get ahead. It is very interesting to know what animal reproduction is like.
The life of the butterfly is, although short, intense. In its short lifetime it goes through no less than four phases. The embryo is formed first to later become a caterpillar. The penultimate stage is the pupa and finally they finish their amazing and rapid transformation as adults. This is the form that we will know best about butterflies; it is also the most visible. Before being adults the only objective is to eat to have energy and to be able to complete those phases of development.
Curiosities of butterflies
Without a doubt, apart from being an extremely beautiful and necessary insect, they have many really curious characteristics. These are some of the many curiosities they have:
– This insect has compound eyes and many individual lenses. They are endowed with an incredible number of over 6,000 lenses.
– They can only see in three colors. These colors are green, red and yellow.
– A somewhat shocking fact is that they can taste food with their feet.
– The antennas are very important to them. They use them to smell and touch.
– The maximum life expectancy of a species of butterfly can reach up to 10 months.
– The wings are extremely sensitive. A simple touch can damage their wings.
– It is essential to expose its wings to the Sun to have the ability to fly.
– The time of intercourse is between twenty minutes and a few hours.
We have seen many curiosities that butterflies have, but there are countless of them. It is certainly an animal worthy of study. Other curiosities that we have found out about them are:
– The larval butterflies, “babies”, emit a series of sounds that allow them to communicate with the ants.
– As they lack lungs, they breathe through the side of the body. There they have a kind of door for air to enter.
– They need nectar and fruits that have already passed the fermentation process. This provides them with the energy to fly.
– From puddles they extract nutrients. Also salts that is beneficial for their reproduction. The males go to these puddles.
– The caterpillars need a lot of oxygen and to be well fed. This is because they shed their skin many times.
– Day butterflies exist thanks to nocturnal ones. These inhabit the earth for more than forty thousand millennia and are the origin of the diurnal ones.
Instructions for butterflies are born
Mating takes place thanks to the two moving their wings and smelling. This is where pheromones are of great importance. Butterflies are very farsighted and intelligent mothers. Since, when they are fertilized, their first objective is a plant that can feed the young. It will also check that other mothers have not chosen that same plant to lay their eggs. If their eggs are the only ones on that floor, the hatchlings have more of a piece of the pie to share. It is a magnificent and interesting process which we will talk about in this section.
The phases of this act are:
- The courtship with its respective mating.
- The male fertilizes the female.
- The female, once fertilized, begins the search to lay her eggs in a place where there are many plants.
- Once the plant is chosen, it lays more than a hundred eggs.
- The egg begins to acquire a certain transparency.
- With its little teeth, the baby is cutting the shell to get outside. The way to break the shell has a circular path.
- The first thing the caterpillar does is feed. To do this, use the shell from which it came out.
What do you need for butterflies to be born?
Butterflies require a series of circumstances and factors for reproduction. Since they start the task they have time against them. This is due to their short life expectancy. Being adults, in some species, the most they can live is one day. So their top priority, after feeding properly, is to reproduce. Thus ensuring the salvation of the species. These are the factors and the environment they need:
- Find a partner fast to procreate.
- The courtship ritual and its subsequent mating with the male.
- A place where there are many plants so that when the young are born they have food.
- It is important that there are no more eggs from other mothers on the same plant. There wouldn’t be enough for everyone.
- It is vital for their survival that there is a specific species of plants for them to feed on. So much so, that if a type of plant becomes extinct, as a domino effect, so would that species of butterfly.
Tips for butterflies are born
It is important that we are aware of the importance of butterflies in our lives. As we have already said in the article, they are perfect helpers to know how the ecosystem inhabited by them is doing. Although it is also true that, sometimes, they harm the harvest. This is because each butterfly lays more than a hundred eggs on a given plant. And she is not the only one in that process. The result is that the harvest can be compromised when the worms hatch. Once they come into the world, they begin to feed on the plant they are on. It is practically an army devouring little by little a certain harvest. But this is the cycle of nature.
They are necessary for our own good and for the well-being of the flora in general. It also gives us other information. How many herbivores there are? This is important to know, because if there are too many we do not have for ourselves. If we like butterflies and we know where they usually are, we can go take photos. Capturing the exact moment we can get a very nice photo. In the event that we are interested in the birth process of the offspring, we have at our disposal documentaries about this moment. As well as his transformations, since this is difficult to capture live. All this can be found on YouTube. Also, if we are interested in breeding, we should know how to raise silkworms.
On the other hand, we should not hunt butterflies for the simple fact that we like them. First, because it is a living being whose nature is to be free? Their life expectancy is so short that they have to hurry to reproduce, so by withholding it we are depriving them of procreating. Taking this fact into account, if we capture it we won’t have much time to admire its beauty. Another reason of great importance is its role in pollination.
