No 1.

ating M

Stage y

Eggs / Ovum

Figure 1. Araschnia levana Eggs

How to Do? This enables the females eggs to be fertilised. Like many other species in nature there is often a courtship routine preceding the actual mating. Some butterflies fly in spirals, sometimes the female lies with her wings in a certain position. The purpose of any courtship routine (humans included!) is to discover the suitability of the potential mate. Part of this process is to discover if the female is already fertilised (pregnant might be a human parallel), the female can release a pheromone (chemical) which will show her unavailability, or just not follow the usual mating routine. The shape of butterfly eggs is remarkably variable. The examples below show some recurring forms but there are many others, for example swallowtail eggs are smooth and spherical. There is some consistency of shape between closely related species. The egg consists of an outer casing, or chorion, inside which is the females fertilised

References http://www.butterflyguide.co.uk/life/ All pictures in these pages copyright to Simon Coombes. Permission must be sought and obtained for any use. (Tuesday, July 19, 2011, 8:05:40 PM)

http://www.butterflyguide.co.uk/life/ovum.htm All pictures in these pages copyright to Simon Coombes. Permission must be sought and obtained for any use. (Tuesday , July 19 2011, 8:22:08 PM)

y
Figure 2. Swallowtail Eggs

ovum. There is always a minute opening, the micropyle, which is visible as a small pit at the top of some eggs. This structure allows the male sperm to fertilise the egg and probably allows the developing embryo to breathe. Through her legs the female butterfly can 'taste' plants by a chemical process and so recognise the species, or groups of species which her young will need to feed on. Some butterflies (termed monophagous) only use a single species of plant for their larvae, while others (oligophagous) will use hostplants of similar species and there are some (polyphagous) which will use hostplants from different genera. Once a suitable site is found egg-laying, oviposition, can take place. Sometimes eggs are laid singly, at other times they may be in bunches, the Map, Araschnia levana, lays its eggs in vertical columns. All these tactics have their benefits in terms of survival, a parasite may miss one or two eggs in a large group and similarly may miss one

The Caterpillar or Larva

Figure 3. Pierris Brassicae

or two widely scattered eggs. Usually the eggs are laid on the foodplant, but some species lay nearby. The Silver-washed fritillary, Argynnis paphia, lays its eggs on the trunk of a tree near to a growth of its foodplant, Viola. Butterfly eggs are attacked by various parasitic wasps so as much as possible must be done to safeguard them. The eggs take a variable amount of time to hatch, indeed some butterflies remain as eggs through the winter, only hatching when the warmth of spring arrives. Usually it takes about 10 days for an egg to hatch. There is an easy exit for the tiny first instar caterpillar to escape from the confines of its egg. A caterpillar is an eating machine. Its consists of a pair of jaws or mandibles for chewing plant matter followed by a long gut for digestion. It moves using three pairs of true legs (like all insects) and five further pairs of 'prolegs', sucker like structures with hooks on the end for gripping hold of the leaves and stems. Along the side of the larva are small

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openings, spiracles, nine pairs in all, through which respiration occurs. A modified set of salivary glands, spinnerets, produce silk, which is discussed later on this page. All butterfly larvae are hairy, some quite spectacularly covered with bushes of setae, they may well be off-putting to potential predators. When first hatched the larva or caterpillar is very small indeed, just a few millimeters long. These first instar larvae look similar regardless of which species they belong to. Usually the caterpillar immediately searches out food and starts to eat, although some species overwinter at this stage. Due to the nature of the skeleton of insects they cannot grow in the same way that we do. Every so often the caterpillar sheds its skin so that it can expand and grow to a larger size. This process is known as ecdysis and each time it happens the caterpillar moves on to a new instar. Most European species molt four times and so their final stage is usually the fifth instar. Caterpillars feed for a

large part of their time, consuming an ever increasing amount of foodplant as they get rapidly larger. Some species prefer the cover of night to avoid unwanted attention, the Comma, Polygonia c-album, spends most of its time underneath leaves for the same reason. Their excrement, usually called frass, is dropped all over the place in small lumps. The larva of the Large white, Pieris brassicae, pictured left demonstrates where the frass gets its colour from. Some butterfly species actually have a system of catapulting it away to deter predators, for example the Small skipper, Thymelicus sylvestris. The White admiral, Limenitis camilla actually covers itself in its own frass as disruptive camouflage to confuse predators. Caterpillars produce a silken thread from organs beside their jaws. This is used for a variety of purposes. It gives the caterpillars a good hold on their foodplant and some use it to rest between bouts of feeding. When a caterpillar is fully grown it takes time to wander in

The Chrysalis or Pupa

y
Figure 5. Nymphalid

Figure 4. Pierid

search of a suitable pupation site. This stage is sometimes known as the prepupa. The larva will let all frass clear its system before pupation. Different families pupate in different ways. A Nymphalid (left) spins a silken pad and hangs head down using its anal claspers to grip on. A Pierid (right) however spins a pad then attaches itself with head upwards, spinning a silken girdle for support The word chrysalis is derived from the Greek work crusoz meaning gold, referring to the colour of some Nymphalid pupae, whereas pupa is the scientific word describing this stage of a butterflies life. Once the caterpillar has transformed into a pupa a remarkable process occurs transforming the contents of the pupa into an adult butterfly. This can take as little as two weeks, but some species over-winter (hibernate) in this stage, only hatching in the warmth of spring. As the pupa is unable to avoid any potential predators they tend to be quite well camouflaged, indeed some are form under

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Conclusion

Figure 6. Meconium

the ground. The pupa hangs onto the silken pad using its cremaster, rather than the anal claspers of the caterpillar. Just before the adult butterfly hatches the pupal skin becomes transparent and the wing pattern is visible inside. Shortly after the wings have been pumped full of fluid and dried, all the leftover products of the metamorphosis are excreted. This is normally a reddish fluid, the meconium, and has given rise to fables of showers of blood when many butterflies hatch together. Butterflies feed primarily on nectar from flowers. Some also derive nourishment from pollen,[ tree sap, rotting fruit, dung, decaying flesh, and dissolved minerals in wet sand or dirt. Butterflies are important as pollinators for some species of plants although in general they do not carry as much pollen load as bees. They are however capable of moving pollen over greater distances. Flower constancy has

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Food

Figure 7. Butterfly Antennae

Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly y ^ Gilbert LE (1972). "Pollen feeding and reproductive biology of Heliconius butterflies". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 69 (6): 1402 1407. doi:10.1073/pnas.69.6.1403 (Thursday, July 21, 2011, 2:08:16 PM) y Herrera, C.M. (1987). "Components of pollinator "quality": comparative analysis of a diverse insect assemblage". Oikos (Oikos, Vol. 50, No. 1) 50 (1): 79 90. doi:10.2307/3565403. JSTOR 3565403 (Thursday, July 21, 2011. 2:10:14 PM) y Goulson D., Ollerton J., Sluman C. (1997). "Foraging

Flight

been observed for at least one species of butterfly. Butterflies sense the air for scents, wind and nectar using their antennae. The antennae come in various shapes and colours. The hesperids have a pointed angle or hook to the antennae, while most other families show knobbed antennae. The antennae are richly covered with sensillae. A butterfly's sense of taste is coordinated by chemoreceptors on the tarsi, or feet, which work only on contact, and are used to determine whether an egg-laying insect's offspring will be able to feed on a leaf before eggs are laid on it. Many butterflies use chemical signals, pheromones, and specialized scent scales (androconia) and other structures (coremata or 'Hair pencils' in the Danaidae) are developed in some species. Like many other members of the insect world, the lift generated by butterflies is more than what can be accounted for by steady-state, non-transitory aerodynamics. Studies

strategies in the small skipper butterfly, Thymelicus flavus: when to switch?". Animal Behavior 53 (5): 1009 1016. doi:10.1006/anbe.1996.0390 (Thursday, 21 July 2011, 2:07:28 PM) All rights reserved by 'SeraphimC. http://www.flickr.com/photos /seraphimc/ (Thursday, 21 July 2011, 1:56:21 PM)

Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly Srygley R. B., Thomas A. L. R. (2002). "Aerodynamics of insect flight: flow visualisations with free flying butterflies reveal a variety of unconventional lift-generating mechanisms" (PDF). Nature 420 (6916): 660 664.

using Vanessa atalanta in a windtunnel show that they use a wide variety of aerodynamic mechanisms to generate force. These include wake capture, vortices at the wing edge, rotational mechanisms and WeisFogh 'clap-and-fling' mechanisms. The butterflies were also able to change from one mode to another rapidly.

doi:10.1038/nature01223. PMID 12478291 (Thursday, July 21, 2011, 4:36:02 PM)

Instar :
Caterpillars go through 5 stages of growth. Each stage is called an "instar." Its skeleton is on the outside of its body, like clothes. So, as it grows, it can no longer fits in its skin. But as Dr. Lincoln Brower explains, the analogy of growing out of clothes doesn't fit exactly: "The caterpillar doesn't just shed that skin, it digests and reabsorbs most of it. Before the skin starts shedding it does get tight. But it doesn't just slip off. What happens is that the cells beneath the skin start releasing enormous amounts of enzymes and actually absorb most of the skin. Before it's shed it becomes a thin sheen over the body. So what is shed is just a thin outer part of the cuticle. You can see how it looks when shedded (see picture to the right). Sort of like a snake's skin. So a snake skin analogy is really much better."