All You Want to Know about Butterflies

Find the answers to the questions on the following slides.

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The Parts of a Butterfly

Antennae Legs Eyes Proboscis Abdomen Thorax Forewing Hind wing

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Legs

Butterfly Questions
What is the difference How many kinds of between butterflies butterflies are there? and moths? How does a caterpillar turn into a butterfly?

What do butterflies eat?

What is the life cycle of a butterfly?

Are butterflies poisonous?

Do caterpillars have teeth?

Why do butterflies have such colorful wings?

Do butterflies have ears?

Home page / Parts of a Butterfly / Butterfly techfedkerala / Test Yourself / Butterfly Websites Questions

Test Yourself
Stages of the Butterfly Lifecycle
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Parts of a Butterfly

Visit Some Butterfly Sites

The Childrens Butterfly Site Coal Creek Butterfly Garden The Amazing Life Cycle of a Butterfly The Butterfly Conservancy The Monarch Watch The Milkweed Cafe Insecta-Inspecta Site

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Antennae are jointed sensory organs used for smelling.

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A butterfly has six legs like all insects.

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Butterflies have two large eyes made up of many different lenses or facets. The facets are sensitive to movement and to the color patterns in flowers and other butterflies.

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The proboscis is a special feeding tub that uncoils when the butterfly wants to sip nectar from a flower.

A good close up of a proboscis.

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The abdomen holds the butterflys digestive system and reproductive organs. The digestive system breaks down food the butterfly eats so that the butterflys body can use it. The reproductive system allows the butterfly to lay eggs and make more butterflys.

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The wings are connected to the thorax. It contains the muscles the butterfly needs to fly.

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The forewings are the wings on top. They are covered with thousands of delicate scales that give the butterfly color and pattern

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The wings at the bottom of the butterfly are called the hind wings. They are also covered with many scales which make up the color and pattern of an insect.

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There are many differences between butterflies and moths. Most butterflies fly by day and most moths fly at night. When in a resting position, most butterflies hold their wings up and most moths leave their wings flat. Butterfly antennae are knobbed at the tip and moth antennae are either feathered or straight. These rules do not apply though to all butterflies or all moths. Some people think that butterflies are just fancy moths. techfedkerala

There are approximately 1215,000 species of butterflies

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Caterpillars have spinnerets like a spider. They use the spinnerets to spin silk and attach themselves to a branch. Then they spin the silk around them and make a chrysalis. Inside the chrysalis they make wings and turn into a butterfly.
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Butterflies drink liquids using their proboscis like a straw. Most butterflies drink the nectar from flowers, but some drink sap from trees, rotting fruit, bird droppings, or animal dung. For more information on this subject visit the Childrens Butterfly Website.

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Stage One:The Egg Stage Two: The Caterpillar

Stage Three: The Pupa Stage

Stage Four: The Butterfly techfedkerala

Some butterflies such as the Monarch and the Pipevine Swallowtail eat poisonous plants and Become poisonous. Birds learn not to eat them.

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Caterpillars can bite with their jaw structure to chew their food. This can be seen with a magnifying glass.

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 Colors are used for finding a mate in the correct species of butterfly.
Bright colors warn birds that they do not taste good.

Some butterflies mimic other bad tasting butterflies so birds will not eat them.
Some use color to look like their background. techfedkerala

Butterflies do not have ears. Some moths have an ear. Butterflies use their antennae to smell and feel motion around them.

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