Butterflies
are insects belonging to the order Lepidoptera or “winged insect scales”. The
butterfly can be found in the tropics. Butterflies breathe with trachea.
Butterfly undergo complete metamorphosis is as an egg, caterpillar, chrysalis
until butterfly.
Butterflies
are noted for their wings, which are colorful and bright. Butterfly wings are a
bit like bird wings. bird wings are made of feathers, but butterfly wings are
made of tiny overlapping scales. The wings are colored in various
patterns. Some butterfly wings look iridescent (changing rainbow colors,
depending on the light) because of the way light hits the scales.
Butterflies
have an interesting life cycle. They start as eggs. When they are born, they
are what we called caterpillars. This is the larval stage for the caterpillar.
The caterpillars then move into a cocoon, becoming what we called a chrysalis.
This is the pupal stage. When the insect comes out of the cocoon, we call it
butterfly. This is the adult stage for the caterpillar. These clear stages of
changing on the way to adulthood are called metamorphosis. Many animals go
through metamorphosis, but the butterfly's changes are more dramatic than most.
Butterflies can be found almost all over the world. there may be as many as
twenty thousand different species of butterflies. Butterflies usually eat
flower nectar. Because of this, they are important to the life cycle of many
flowers. Butterflies also need minerals, which they usually get from water
found in dirt and sand.
