Furtively fluttering from flower to flower, butterflies adorn our gardens gracefully in all the seasons with their opalescent beauty. These wee and fragile creatures originally named ‘flutterby’ display nature’s aesthetic creativity with the beautifully colored and designed jeweled wings. Almost everyone is familiar with the common Evening Browns sleeping on the walls around a bulb or other light source, usually falling prey to a lizard. Let’s peep into the world of these angelic species and unearth some fascinating facts!
Butterflies are shy creatures and fly away the moment they sense the presence of another being. Our shadows alert them of our presence and they hide within their surroundings, on the underside of leaves and flowers. It gets quite tough to spot a Blue Pansy (Junonia Orithya) with its wings folded upright, matching the dry leaves in the environs.
Butterflies sip nectar and also help in transporting pollen grains from one flower to other. They don’t have mouths; instead have a long tube called Proboscis used by them to drink nectar. And when they don’t have mouths guess! where’s the tongue? Well quite unusual these beauties taste their food by standing on it because their taste sensors are located in their feet. Apart from two wings all the butterflies have six legs and feet. Ever seen a butterfly puddling mud? This peculiar behavior of gathering mud puddles is done by male species only, to sip the nutrients present in the mud.
Found in almost all colors and beautiful designs you might be unaware that the wings of butterflies are actually transparent. The beautiful patterned and colored wings are due to the overlapping glittering scales. And when you touch it delicately you aren’t hurting it, just a few colored scales may be rubbed off. Being cold blooded they need the warmth of the sun to fly around; reasonably that’s why they don’t inhabit Antarctica. With abundant varieties available, butterflies too are choosy about the florets they befriend; these gorgeous queens don’t like the queen of flowers – Roses; envy you know! Or how is it that they know that roses do not propagate by cross pollination (roses are propagated by its stem)? Only nature has the answer!
The Female Queen Alexandra butterfly found in Papua and New Guinea is the largest in the world with wings up to 26cm long. And if there’s a butterfly race; it surely will be won by the Monarch butterfly, which holds the record for the fastest butterfly. Butterflies share a peaceful co-existence. Two different species can easily be spotted sharing their meals and sipping nectar together, thus setting an example of communal harmony.
Butterflies must not be disturbed and given complete freedom to enjoy their natural environments. Its lamenting that some of the rare species of butterflies is killed in north-eastern states, just for a mere purpose of decorating their homes and is slowly turning into a flourishing business. Besides serving as a link in the food chain they also help in the procreation of flowering plants and delight us by their presence, even when they themselves are deprived of the numerous gratifying colors and can see only red, green and yellow!
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