Butterfly Facts And Pictures

Butterflies are day flying insects having thousands of tiny scales on their wings which give them a catchy and colorful look. Not always the wings are colored sometimes they are iridescent and break the light into VIBGYOR. The undersides of wings are dull colored which protects them from birds and other predators by camouflaging them.

Long-distance Flights

All butterflies have four wings, but these work together like a single pair. A butterfly beats it wings fairly slowly: about twenty times a second for a cabbage white. Yet many butterflies can fly fast and powerfully. Even some of the smaller species travel long distances on migration. Comma butterflies, for instance, can fly from the central Sahara to Britain, a distance of about 2,000 miles, in fourteen days.

Moths

Moths, like butterflies, have wings which are covered with tiny scales. They often get trapped on window panes, and if you catch one to let it out you will find a fine dust on your fingers. This is made by some of the scales, which have brushed off as the mouth fluttered. There are far more moths than there are butterflies. Some are very tiny indeed, but some are even as big as the biggest butterfly. Although they are closely related to butterflies, moths generally lead a different way of life. They are mostly active at night. Because of this they tend to be drab in color, unlike the brightly colored butterflies, mostly active in the daytime.

During the day they rest somewhere like on a tree trunk, where they are very hard to see because they are so well camouflaged. Moths have a good sense of smell, which they use to find both their mates and their food. Many male moths have very elaborate antennae. These are the nose of the moth, and are used mainly to smell out a suitable female. A male moth can follow the scent of a female across 18 km (11 miles) of country and town, ignoring all other sorts of smells. Moths get most of the nectar feed on from long tube, strong smelling, pale colored flowers. Honeysuckle, jasmine and tobacco plants all provide food for moths.