Butterfly Fun Facts

• Butterflies taste with their feet.
• A group of butterflies is sometimes called a flutter.
• Their eyes are made of 6,000 lenses and can see ultraviolet light.
• There are 165,000 known species of butterflies found on every continent except Antarctica.
• Many adult butterflies never excrete waste – they use up all they eat for energy.
• Despite popular belief, butterfly wings are clear – the colors and patterns we see are made by the reflection of the tiny scales covering them.
• Butterfly wings move in a figure “8” motion.
• Butterflies vary in size – the largest species may reach 12 inches across, while the smallest may only be half an inch.
• Some butterfly species lay their eggs on only one type of plant.
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar was no joke – the first meal after a caterpillar hatches is usually the eggshell from which it has just emerged.
• In some areas, the number of feeding caterpillars on plants is so great that you can actually hear them munching. Thus, manners are not important in butterfly society.
• The process by which a caterpillar magically transforms into a butterfly, aka metamorphosis, is completed in 10 to 15 days, depending on the species.
• Butterflies are essentially cold-blooded.
• Skipper butterflies fly so fast they could outpace a horse, but most butterflies fly at 5 to 12 miles per hour (8 to 20 kilometers per hour).
• Butterflies have a long, tube-like tongue called a proboscis that allows them to soak up their food rather than sip it.
• Males drink from mud puddles to extract minerals that aren’t available in flowers. This behavior is known as “puddling.”
• “Puddle clubs” are groups of butterflies that gather at wet soil to suck up salts and minerals.
• Some butterflies have been seen drinking blood from open wounds on animals.
• Scientists thought butterflies were deaf until the first butterfly ears were identified in 1912.

Do you have any butterfly facts to add to this list? Share them.