Some Butterfly FavoritesHere are some interesting and strange butterfly facts. You can use these to amaze your family and friends.
Some Butterfly FavoritesThe Monarch butterfly, also known as the milkweed butterfly, is not able to survive cold winters of North America. Eastern Monarchs will migrate to Mexico and those in the Rocky Mountains will travel to California. The longest distance Monarch butterflies have been known to journey is 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.
The Monarch cocoon is called a chrysalis. As the butterfly begins to metamorphose, the chrysalis begins to darken and will turn transparent just before the butterfly emerges. The mature butterfly emerges after about two weeks and hangs from the split chrysalis for several hours until its wings are dry. Monarchs can live two to eight weeks in a butterfly garden.
SwallowtailsSwallowtail butterflies, being large, colorful, and attractive, have been the target of butterfly collectors in earlier times. The adults are often tailed like the forked tail of some swallows, giving the insect its name. There are at least 550 species, and though the majority are tropical, members of the family are found on all continents except Antarctica.
The Zebra Swallowtail has triangular wings with long tails. It has some distinctive black and white markings on its wings and some small red and blue markings on both bottom corners of the wings. The Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly is also the official state butterfly of Tennessee.
Swallowtail (butterfly) Wikipedia
Blue MorphoMany Morpho butterflies are colored in metallic, shimmering shades of blue and green. These colors are not a result of pigmentation but are an example of iridescence, the sun reflecting in certain light spectrums from scales on the wings.
Morpho butterflies are forest dwellers but will venture into sunny clearings to warm themselves. The entire life cycle of the Morpho butterfly, from egg to death, is approximately 137 days. The adults live for about a month. They have few predators as the adults are poisonous due to the feeding caterpillar sequestering poisonous compounds.
Eastern Tiger SwallowTailPapilio glaucus, the eastern tiger swallowtail, is a species of butterfly native to eastern North America. It is one of the most familiar butterflies in the eastern United States,[3] ranging north to southern Ontario, Canada,[4] and is common in many different habitats. It flies from spring until fall, during which it produces two to three broods. Adults feed on the nectar of many species of flowers, mostly from those of the families Apocynaceae, Asteraceae, and Fabaceae. P. glaucus has a wingspan measuring 7.9 to 14 cm (3.1 to 5.5 in). The male is yellow with four black "tiger stripes" on each forewing. Females may be either yellow or black, making the females dimorphic. The yellow morph has similar coloring to the male, but with a conspicuous band of blue spots along the hindwing; the dark morph is almost completely black.
The eastern tiger swallowtail is the state butterfly of Alabama (as well as state mascot),[5] Delaware, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina,[6] and is the state insect of Virginia.[7]
Tiger Swallowtail(butterfly) Wikipedia
Gulf fritillaryThe Gulf fritillary or passion butterfly (Dione vanillae or Agraulis vanillae in other taxonomies) is a bright orange butterfly in the subfamily Heliconiinae of the family Nymphalidae. That subfamily was formerly set apart as a separate family, the Heliconiidae. The Heliconiinae are "longwing butterflies", which have long, narrow wings compared to other butterflies.
Dione vanillae is most commonly found in the southern areas of the United States, specifically in many regions of Florida and Texas.[2]
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