1. Did you know that butterflies need the warmth of the sun to enable them to fly?
Butterflies are cold-blooded and will not fly if the temperature is below 50 degrees.
2. Fact or Fiction? You will kill a butterfly if you touch its wings?
Fiction, you will not hurt a butterfly if you touch it, although you might rub off some of the color of its wings which are actually miniature scales.
3. There are some species of butterflies like the Red Admiral that actually prefer feeding on rotting fruit and animal dung!
4. Milkweed, the host plant for the monarch butterfly also known as "Pleurisy Root" is also used for medicinal purposes. It is used to treat chest conjestion and pains, dysentry and asthma. Although it has medicinal purpose, do not use to treat medical problems without first consulting your doctor.
5. Butterflies excrete a red liquid which is sometimes mistaken for blood when in reality it is actually meconium, "pupal fluid" which isn't blood at all. It is made up of waste material that is produced during the pupal stage.
6. Butterflies "taste" with their feet! Butterfly feet are actually tiny receptors which allow them to "taste" the food that they are standing on.
7. True or False? Both male and female swallowtails have the "puddling" behavior?
False, only the males of the species gather around mud puddles to sip the nutrients from the mud.
8. Have you ever seen a tiny white butterfly fluttering about your vegetable garden? Chances are it is an adult cabbage white butterfly depositing eggs on your cabbage or vegetables in the cabbage family. The caterpillar of the cabbage white is velvety and just the right shade of green to blend in perfectly with the cabbage leaves.
9. Fact or Fiction? Birds think that monarchs are a tasty treat?
Fiction, once a bird has eaten a monarch it is definately a reminder NOT to eat another one, for the milkweed that the monarch eats as a caterpillar has a toxic effect when the butterfly is ingested.
10. True or false? caterpillars have bones?
False, caterpillars do NOT have bones, they have over 1,000 muscles in which they use to move from place to place and they can move at a very quick pace. For if you find a caterpillar and place him in a designated place, before you know it , he will have crawled out of sight!
• 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 Queen Alexandra’s birdwing from the island of New Guinea is the largest butterfly; it can have a wingspan of 11 inches!
• Most butterflies make no sound, but some in Florida and Texas make a loud clicking sound with their wings.
• Butterflies do not get bigger as they age - a young butterfly is a caterpillar!
• The female moth produces a scent that a male moth can smell a mile away.
• Butterflies are related to crabs and lobsters! Why? Because like those sea creatures, butterflies have skeletons on the outside of their bodies. They’re arthropods: insects,
crustaceans, millipedes, centipedes and arachnids.
• Butterflies weigh only as much as two rose petals, but can fly thousands of miles.
• Butterflies can’t hear, but they can feel vibrations.
• Caterpillars are not worms. Caterpillars have legs; worms do not
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