The Eight Spotted Forester Alypia octomaculata left is colourful, has wire-like antennae, and flies during the day — but it is actually a moth! Welcome back! Ask our Naturalist! Notice: JavaScript is required for this content. Anatomy Butterfly vs. Parts of a Butterfly All insects, including butterflies, share a common overall body design.
On the head, you will find: Antennae singular: Antenna Attached at the top of the head. On the thorax, you will find: Six Legs These are attached to the underside of the thorax. Four Wings Although it may appear at first glance that butterflies only have two wings, if you have a closer look it becomes obvious that each side of the body has a forewing and a hindwing.
Pigmented scales get their colours from pigment chemicals they contain, which absorb some light and reflect the rest. Over time, pigment scales can fade, because eventually the pigment chemicals break down. This is why some butterflies fade when kept in collections that are exposed to light.
Diffractive scales get their colours by diffracting light, a similar effect to using a prism to split white light into a rainbow. Diffractive scales give off brilliant metallic and iridescent colours, and do not fade over time because they have no pigment chemicals to break down. Androconia scales are scales that produce pheromones instead of colour. Pheromones are chemicals that butterflies release into the air to communicate with other butterflies of the same species, and are usually involved in helping butterflies find a mate.
Reproductive Organs All of the important male and female organs involved in reproduction are found in the abdomen, located towards the tip. Butterfly vs.
Moth How are Butterflies Related to Moths? Butterflies: Butterflies tend to be colourful Butterflies tend to be diurnal active during the day , where the daylight makes their colours showy Butterflies tend to pupate in a hard chrysalis Butterflies tend to rest with their wings closed and directly over their backs unless they are sunning Butterflies tend to have thinner bodies which are not overly fuzzy.
Moths Moths tend to be drably coloured, often in browns, greys, and pale colours Moths tend to be nocturnal active during the night , where low light levels mean that only pale colours show up well Moths tend to pupate inside a cocoon, which they spin out of silk and sometimes nearby materials like leaves Moths tend to rest with their wings open or flat against their backs Moths tend to have fatter, stockier bodies, and are often noticeably fuzzy Challenge: Do you see butterflies, moths, or both?
Scroll down to see the answer! The scales, which are arranged in colorful designs unique to each species, are what gives the butterfly its beauty.
Like all other insects, butterflies have six legs and three main body parts: head, thorax chest or mid section and abdomen tail end. They also have two antennae and an exoskeleton. The difference between a butterfly and a moth? Both butterflies and moths belong to the same insect group called Lepidoptera. In general, butterflies differ from moths in the following ways: 1 Butterflies usually have clubbed antennae but moths have fuzzy or feathery antennae.
Moths, on the other hand, rest with their wings spread out flat. Butterflies will, however, bask with their wings out-stretched. There are some very colorful moths. A life cycle is made up of the stages that a living organism goes through during its lifetime from beginning to end.
A butterfly undergoes a process called complete metamorphosis during its life cycle. This means that the butterfly changes completely from its early larval stage, when it is a caterpillar, until the final stage, when it becomes a beautiful and graceful adult butterfly. The butterfly life cycle has four stages: egg , larva , pupa , and adult.
The first stage of the butterfly life cycle is the egg or ovum. Butterfly eggs are tiny, vary in color and may be round, cylindrical or oval.
The female butterfly attaches the eggs to leaves or stems of plants that will also serve as a suitable food source for the larvae when they hatch. The larva, or caterpillar , that hatches from the egg is the second stage in the life cycle. Caterpillars often, but not always, have several pairs of true legs, along with several pairs of false legs or prolegs.
A caterpillar's primary activity is eating. They have a voracious appetite and eat almost constantly. As the caterpillar continues to eat, its body grows considerably. The tough outer skin or exoskeleton, however, does not grow or stretch along with the enlarging caterpillar.
Instead, the old exoskeleton is shed in a process called molting and it is replaced by a new, larger exoskeleton. A caterpillar may go through as many as four to five molts before it becomes a pupa. The third stage is known as the pupa or chrysalis. The caterpillar attaches itself to a twig, a wall or some other support and the exoskeleton splits open to reveal the chrysalis.
The chrysalis hangs down like a small sack until the transformation to butterfly is complete. The casual observer may think that because the pupa is motionless that very little is going on during this "resting stage. The pupa does not feed but instead gets its energy from the food eaten by the larval stage.
Depending on the species, the pupal stage may last for just a few days or it may last for more than a year. Many butterfly species overwinter or hibernate as pupae. The fourth and final stage of the life cycle is the adult. Once the chrysalis casing splits, the butterfly emerges. It will eventually mate and lay eggs to begin the cycle all over again. Most adult butterflies will live only a week or two, while a few species may live as long as 18 months.
Images in this section are of the life cycle of the black swallowtail on one of its host plants, fennel. Butterflies are complex creatures. Their day-to-day lives can be characterized by many activities. If you are observant you may see butterflies involved in many of the follow activities. To observe some activities, such as hybernation, may involve some detective work. To observe other activities such as basking, puddling, or migrating, you will need to be at the proper place at the proper time.
Keep an activity log and see how many different butterflies you can spot involved in each activity. The information from the individual butterfly pages may give you some hints as to where or on what plants some of these activities are likely to occur. The larval or caterpillar stage and the adult butterfly have very different food preferences, largely due to the differences in their mouth parts. Both types of foods must be available in order for the butterfly to complete its life cycle.
Caterpillars are very particular about what they eat, which is why the female butterfly lays her eggs only on certain plants. She instinctively knows what plants will serve as suitable food for the hungry caterpillars that hatch from her eggs. Caterpillars don't move much and may spend their entire lives on the same plant or even the same leaf!
Their primary goal is to eat as much as they can so that they become large enough to pupate. Caterpillars have chewing mouth parts, called mandibles, which enable them to eat leaves and other plant parts. Some caterpillars are considered pests because of the damage they do to crops.
Caterpillars do not need to drink additional water because they get all they need from the plants they eat. Selected References: Carter, David. Butterflies and Moths Eyewitness Handbooks. Dorling Kindersley, Inc. Opler, P. Butterflies East of the Great Plains. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. A Field Guide to Eastern Butterflies. Houghton Mifflin, Boston. Pyle, R. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. Scott, J.
The Butterflies of North America. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. Parides tros. Papilio daunus. Colias wiskotti. Smithsonian American Art Museum Butterfly 6. Papilio rutulus. Parides agavus. Caterpillars can grow times their size during this stage. For example, a monarch butterfly egg is the size of a pinhead and the caterpillar that hatches from this tiny egg isn't much bigger.
But it will grow up to 2 inches long in several weeks. When the caterpillar is full grown and stops eating, it becomes a pupa. The pupa of butterflies is also called a chrysalis. Depending on the species, the pupa may suspended under a branch, hidden in leaves or buried underground.
The pupa of many moths is protected inside a coccoon of silk. This stage can last from a few weeks, a month or even longer. Some species have a pupal stage that lasts for two years. It may look like nothing is going on but big changes are happening inside. Special cells that were present in the larva are now growing rapidly. They will become the legs, wings, eyes and other parts of the adult butterfly. Many of the original larva cells will provide energy for these growing adult cells.
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