What is a Butterfly?

Butterflies are beautiful, flying insects with large

scaly wings. Like all insects, they have six jointed
legs, 3 body parts, a pair of antennae, compound
eyes, and an exoskeleton. The three body parts are
the head, thorax (the chest), and abdomen (the tail end).

The butterfly's body is covered by tiny sensory hairs. The four wings and the
six legs of the butterfly are attached to the thorax. The thorax contains the
muscles that make the legs and wings move.

FLYING
Butterflies are very good fliers. They have two pairs of
large wings covered with colorful, iridescent scales in
overlapping rows. Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths)
are the only insects that have scaly wings. The wings
are attached to the butterfly's thorax (mid-section). Swallowtails are strong
Veins support the delicate wings and nourish them fliers.
with blood.

Butterflies can only fly if their body temperature is above 86 degrees.

Butterflies sun themselves to warm up in cool weather. As butterflies age, the
color of the wings fades and the wings become ragged.

The speed varies among butterfly species (the poisonous varieties are slower
than non-poisonous varieties). The fastest butterflies (some skippers) can fly at
about 30 mile per hour or faster. Slow flying butterflies fly about 5 mph.
LIFE-CYCLE OF A BUTTERFLY
Butterflies and moths undergo complete
metamorphosis in which they go through four
different life stages.

• Egg - A butterfly starts its life as an egg,

often laid on a leaf.
• Larva - The larva (caterpillar) hatches from
an egg and eats leaves or flowers almost constantly. The caterpillar molts
(loses its old skin) many times as it grows. The caterpillar will increase
up to several thousand times in size before pupating.
• Pupa - It turns into a pupa (chrysalis); this is a resting stage.
• Adult - A beautiful, flying adult emerges. This adult will continue the
cycle.

DIET
Caterpillars spend most of their time eating leaves using strong mandibles
(jaws). A caterpillar's first meal, however, is its own eggshell. A few caterpillars
are meat-eaters; the larva of the carnivorous Harvester butterfly eats woolly
aphids.

Butterflies and moths can only sip liquid food using a tube-like proboscis,
which is a long, flexible "tongue." This proboscis uncoils to sip food, and coils
up again into a spiral when not in use. Most butterflies live on nectar from
flowers. Some butterflies sip the liquid from rotting fruits and a rare few prefer
rotting animal flesh or animal fluids (the Harvester butterfly pierces the bodies
of woolly aphids with its sharp proboscis and drinks the body fluids).

HABITAT
Butterflies are found all over the world and in all types of environments: hot
and cold, dry and moist, at sea level and high in the mountains. Most butterfly
species, however, are found in tropical areas, especially
tropical rainforests.

Many butterflies migrate in order to avoid adverse

environmental conditions (like cold weather). Butterfly
migration is not well understood. Most migrate relatively
short distances (like the Painted Lady, the Red Admiral, and the Common
Buckeye), but a few (like some Monarchs) migrate thousands of miles.

CLASSIFICATION
Butterflies and moth belong to the order Lepidoptera. Lepidos is Greek for
"scales" and ptera means "wing". These scaled wings are different from the
wings of any other insects. Lepidoptera is a very large group; there are more
types of butterflies and moths than there are of any other type of insects except
beetles. It is estimated that there are about 150,000 different species of
butterflies and moths (there may be many more). There are about 28,000
butterfly species worldwide, the rest are moths.

BUTTERFLY FOSSILS
Butterfly fossils are rare. The earliest butterfly fossils are from the early
Cretaceous period, about 130 million years ago. Their development is closely
linked to the evolution of flowering plants (angiosperms) since both adult
butterflies and caterpillars feed on flowering plants, and the adults are
important pollinators of many flowering plants. Flowering plants also evolved
during the Cretaceous period.

Monarch Butterfly
Danaus plexippus
 The Monarch is a common poisonous butterfly that
eats poisonous milkweed in its larval stage and lays
its eggs on the milkweed plant. Monarchs have a
wingspan of 3 3/8 - 4 7/8 inches (8.6 - 12.4 cm).

Butterflies are beautiful, flying insects with large

scaly wings. Like all insects, they have six jointed legs, 3 body parts, a pair of
antennae, compound eyes, and an exoskeleton. The three body parts are the
head, thorax (the chest), and abdomen (the tail end). The four wings and the six
legs of the butterfly are attached to the thorax. The thorax contains the muscles
that make the legs and wings move.

DESCRIPTION
. Egg: Spherical, ridged and white.
Caterpillar: The larva is banded with white/cream, black, and
yellow stripes. It has three pairs of thoracic legs and five pairs of
prolegs (which will disappear during the pupal stage). It has 2
pairs of sensory tentacles, one pair on the head and another pair
near the end of the abdomen.
Pupa: The monarch remains in its pupa for about 10 to 14 days.
The green cylindrical pupa becomes transparent a day before the
adult emerges.
Adult: Bright orange with black wing veins and outer margins.
The wings have white spots on outer margins, and three orange
patches are found near the top of the forewings. The hindwings
are very rounded, and they are lighter in color than the
forewings. The body is black with white spots.

HOW TO TELL A MALE FROM A

FEMALE
Male monarchs have a dark spot (scent scales) on the hindwing and have small
claspers at the end of the abdomen. Females have thicker wing veins.
 LIFE CYCLE OF A MONARCH
BUTTERFLY
Butterflies and moths undergo complete metamorphosis in which
they go through four different life stages. It takes about a month for
the egg to mature into an adult.

• Egg - The Monarch starts its life as a ridged, spherical egg only l/8th of
an inch long. The eggs are always laid singly, on the underside of
milkweed leaves. The female attaches the egg to the leaf with a quick-
drying glue which she secretes along with the egg. The egg hatches in
about 3 to 5 days. A tiny wormlike larva emerges.
• Larva - The larva (caterpillar) hatches from its egg and eats it. Then it
eats milkweed leaves almost constantly. The caterpillar molts (loses its
old skin) four times as it grows; after each molt it eats its old skin. When
the larva is about 2 inches (5 cm) long, it will stop eating and find a
place (like a protected branch) on which to pupate.
• Pupa - The caterpillar turns into a pupa (chrysalis). The caterpillar spins
silk from its spinneret and attaches its hind end to a branch with the silk
and small hooks in the anal prolegs. it hangs head down and molts for
the last time. When the newly-exposed skin dries and hardens, it takes
the form of a jade green chrysalis. During this stage the caterpillar turns
into a butterfly as its entire body is reorganized. In about 10-12 days the
chrysalis becomes transparent and a damp butterfly soon emerges.
• Adult - A beautiful but damp adult emerges from the chrysalis. It pumps
liquid into the wing veins to inflate them. They soon dry, but during this
process, the butterfly is extremely vulnerable to predators. There is no
growth during the adult stage. It can only eat liquids, which it does
through its proboscis. This adult will continue the cycle by reproducing.

EGGS
Female Monarchs lay their ridged, spherical eggs singly on the underside of
milkweed leaves. When the egg hatches into a caterpillar, its meals (the leaves
of the milkweed plant) are easily available.
DIET
The caterpillar's first meal is its own eggshell. After that, Monarch caterpillars
eat the poisonous milkweed leaves to incorporate the milkweed toxins into their
bodies in order to poison their predators. Milkweed (genus Asclepius) is a
common plant that contains toxins. There are more than 100 species of this
perennial herb, containing varying concentrations of toxic chemicals
(glycosides). The Monarch is considered a beneficial insect because its
caterpillar eats the noxious milkweed plant which invades some farms

Monarch butterflies, like all butterflies, can only sip liquid food using a tube-
like proboscis, which is a long, flexible "tongue." This proboscis uncoils to sip
food, and coils up again into a spiral when not in use. Monarchs drink nectar
from many flowers, including milkweed, dogbane, red clover, thistle, lantana,
lilac, goldenrod, etc.

PROTECTION FROM PREDATORS

The Monarch is a poisonous butterfly. Animals that eat a Monarch get very sick
and vomit (but generally do not die). These animals remember that this
brightly-colored butterfly made them very sick and will avoid all Monarchs in
the future.

The monarch gets its poison (cardenolide glycosides) when it is a caterpillar,

from eating the poisonous milkweed plant (genus Asclepias) while in its larval
(caterpillar) stage.

MONARCH MIMIC
The poisonous Monarch is mimicked by the non-poisonous North American
Viceroy butterfly (Limenitis archippus), which has a similar shape, coloration
and patterns. Predators who have learned to avoid the Monarch will also avoid
the similar-looking Viceroy.

HABITAT
Monarchs are found all around the world in sub-tropical to tropical areas. They
are found in open habitats including meadows, fields, marshes, and cleared
roadsides.

RANGE
Monarchs live through most of the USA, in southern Canada, Central America,
most of South America, some Mediterranean countries, the Canary Islands,
Australia, Hawaii, Indonesia, and many other Pacific Islands.
MIGRATION
Some groups of Monarchs migrate for over 2,000 miles during August-October,
flying from Canada and the USA to overwinter in coastal southern California to
the transvolcanic mountains of central Mexico; this was determined by the
Canadian scientist Dr. Fred A. Urquhart in 1975. Females lay their eggs along
the migratory route. This migration takes up to three generations of Monarchs
to complete.

Other Monarchs stay in one area their entire lives.

LIFE SPAN
It takes about a month for the adult to develop (from egg to pupa to adult).

The life span of the adult Monarch varies, depending on the season in which it
emerged from the pupa and whether or not it belongs to a migratory group of
Monarchs. Adults that emerged in early summer have the shortest life spans and
live for about two to five weeks. Those that emerged in late summer survive
over the winter months. The migratory Monarchs, which emerge from the pupa
in late summer and then migrate south, live a much longer life, about 8-9
months.

CLASSIFICATION
Order: Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths)
Family: Nymphalidae (over 5,000 species of butterflies with dwarfed front
legs)
Subfamily: Danaidae (milkweed butterflies)
Genus and species: Danaus plexippus