Butterflies are one of the most diverse and most recognizable creatures in the insect world. They are famous for their symmetrical wings that often display amazing colors and patterns. But the life of a butterfly is far more than their beautiful wings. The butterfly's life is one of complex change.
From their brightly colored bodies to the effortless motion that seems in sync with some unheard symphony, butterflies are an insect each of us can appreciate. But how much do we know about them?
Here are 10 amazing facts that are sure to make you think about butterflies in a whole new way...
- Butterflies range in size from a tiny 1/8 inch to a huge almost 12 inches.
- Butterflies can see red, green, and yellow.
- Some people say that when the black bands on the Woolybear caterpillar are wide, a cold winter is coming.
- The top butterfly flight speed is 12 miles per hour. Some moths can fly 25 miles per hour!
Monarch butterflies journey from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of about 2,000 miles, and return to the north again in the spring.
Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees
Representations of butterflies are seen in Egyptian frescoes at Thebes, which are 3,500 years old.
There are about 24,000 species of butterflies. The moths are even more numerous: about 140,000 species of them were counted all over the world.
The Brimstone butterfly (Gonepterix rhamni) has the longest lifetime of the adult butterflies: 9-10 months.
The females of some moth species lack wings, all they can do to move is crawl.
Most insects are beneficial to people because they eat other insects, pollinate crops, are food for other animals, make products we use (like honey and silk) or have medical uses.