Fun Butterfly Facts

Butterflies are beautiful, flying insects with large scaly wings. Like all insects, they have six jointed legs, 3 body parts and a pair of antennae with compound eyes and an exoskeleton. The three body parts are the head the thorax and the abdomen. The butterfly’s body is covered by tiny sensory hairs. The four wings and the six legs of the butterfly are attached to the thorax. The thorax contains the muscles that make the legs and wings move. They are very good fliers! They have two pairs of large wings covered with colorful, iridescent scales in overlapping rows.

• Butterflies can only fly if their body temperature is above 86 degrees
• Butterflies sun themselves to warm up in cool weather
• As butterflies age, the color of the wings fades and the wings become ragged
• The speed varies among butterfly species (the poisonous varieties are slower than non-poisonous varieties)
• The fastest butterflies (some skippers) can fly at about 30 mile per hour or faster
• Slow flying butterflies fly about 5 mph!

Life cycle of a Butterfly!

• Egg – A butterfly starts its life as an egg, often laid on a leaf
• Larva – The larva (caterpillar) hatches from an egg and eats leaves or flowers almost constantly. The caterpillar molts (loses its old skin) many times as it grows. The caterpillar will increase up to several thousand times in size before pupating
• Pupa – It turns into a pupa (chrysalis); this is a resting stage
• Adult – A beautiful, flying adult emerges. This adult will continue the cycle.