Butterflies: fascinating butterfly facts and trivia

• The original name for the butterfly was 'flutterby'!
• Butterflies range in size from a tiny 1/8 inch to a huge almost 12 inches.
• Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.
• The Brimstone butterfly (Gonepterix rhamni) has the longest lifetime of the adult butterflies: 9-10 months.
• The caterpillars of some Snout Moths (Pyralididae) live in or on water-plants.
• Many butterflies can taste with their feet to find out whether the leaf they sit on is good to lay eggs on to be their caterpillars' food or not.
• People eat insects – called "Entomophagy"(people eating bugs), many bugs are both protein-rich and good sources of vitamins, minerals and fats.
• Butterflies and insects have their skeletons on the outside of their bodies, called the exoskeleton (related to crabs and lobsters), keeping water inside their body to keep them from drying out.
• Female butterflies usually are bigger and live longer than male butterflies.
• A butterfly has compound eyes: each eye is made up of about 6,000 tiny parts called lenses, which let in light.
• The female moth produces a scent that a male moth can smell a mile away.
• Butterflies can’t hear, but they can feel vibrations.
• Butterflies don't have mouths that allow them to bite or chew.
• A caterpillar grows to about 27,000 times the size it was when it first emerged from its egg
• The wings of butterflies and moths are actually transparent.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Rhopalocera

A butterfly is an insect of the order Lepidoptera. Like all Lepidoptera, butterflies are notable for their unusual life cycle with a larval caterpillar stage, an inactive pupal stage, and a spectacular metamorphosis into a familiar and colourful winged adult form.

Butterflies are characterized by their scale-covered wings. The coloration of butterfly wings is created by minute scales. These scales are pigmented with melanins that give them blacks and browns, but blues, greens, reds and iridescence are usually created not by pigments but the microstructure of the scales. This structural coloration is the result of coherent scattering of light by the photonic crystal nature of the scales.

Both butterflies and moths belong to the order lepidoptera, a Greek which means scale wing.The iridescent scales, which overlap like shingles on a roof, give the wings the colors that we see. Contrary to popular belief, many butterflies can be held gently by the wings without harming the butterfly. Of course, some are more fragile than others, and are easily damaged if not handled very gently. Butterflies along with most moths have a long straw like structure called a proboscis which they use to drink nectar and juices. When not in use, the proboscis remains coiled like a garden hose.

Studies on the reflection and scattering of light by the scales on wings of swallowtail butterflies led to the innovation of more efficient light-emitting diodes. Researches on the wing structure of Birdwing (of Palawan, Philippines) butterflies led to new wide wingspan kite and aircraft designs. The structural coloration of butterflies is inspiring nanotechnology research to produce paints that do not use toxic pigments and in the development of new display technologies. Furthermore, the discoloration and health of butterflies in butterfly farms, is now being studied for use as indicators of air quality in several cities.