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30 Fascinating Facts about Butterflies

Butterflies are honestly the most beautiful creatures God ever created. It always blows my mind how they evolve from these ugly creatures at their larva stage to the most beautiful thing you will ever see. It鈥檚 literally the story of an ugly duckling transforming and glowing up. I guess this is where the phrase, 鈥淚nvest in ugly duckings because they always glow up鈥� came from

1. The wings of a butterfly are actually transparent

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I know! It’s very mind-blowing thinking about it. I mean, butterflies usually have very colourful wings and to add to that, their being transparent can be a little too much to fathom. Typically, a butterfly’s wings are always covered by very many tiny scales and usually reflect light in different colours. However, underneath those scales, the wings are formed by layers of chitin, which are the same protein that makes up an insect’s exoskeleton. The layers are quite thin that you can see right through them. The older the butterfly gets, the scales fall off the wings thus leaving spots of transparency where basically the chitin layer is exposed.

2. Butterflies Taste With Their Feet

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Super weird I know! Imagine if as human beings we would be tasting with feet. Meaning that with every trek we make, we are basically tasting something. Imagine if the tongue was at our feet. Damn! The tongue would be the busiest organ in our body. Anyway, there you have it! Butterflies actually taste with their feet. They have taste receptors on their feet to help them host plants and be able to locate food. Usually, a female butterfly lands on different plants while drumming the leaves with their feet until the plant releases its juices. The back of their legs have receptors that typically detect the right match of plant chemicals and when the female butterfly identifies the right plant, she lays eggs. So basically their ecosystems are pretty much connected.

3. Butterflies live and survive on an All-Liquid Diet

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Adult butterflies can only feed on liquid and this liquid is usually nectar. Their mouths are modified in such a way that it enables them to drink but not chew solids. That’s why they typically feed and survive on liquid. They have something in their mouths known as a proboscis which functions as a drinking straw. It usually stays curled up under the butterfly’s chin until it finds nectar or another liquid nutrition. This long, tubular structure then unfurls and sips up a meal.

4. A Butterfly Must be able to very quickly assemble Its Own Proboscis

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So in the typical sense, a butterfly that cannot drink nectar is basically doomed. One of the first major jobs adult butterflies are usually given is to assemble their mouthparts. When a new adult emerges from the larvae stage, its mouth is in two pieces and they begin working these two parts in its adulthood in order to form a single, tubular proboscis. If you were to observe a newly emerged butterfly, you may notice them curling and uncurling the proboscis over and over again in an attempt to test it out.

5. They drink From Mud Puddles

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Butterflies can’t live on sugar alone. they of course need minerals too. So to supplement its diet of nectar, a butterfly will sip from mud puddles occasionally which are very rich in minerals and salts. This behaviour is known as puddling and it occurs more in male butterflies. Why you may ask? Because they usually incorporate the minerals into their sperm. The nutrients are then transferred to the female during the mating process and help improve the feasibility of the female butterfly’s eggs.

6. Butterflies Can’t actually Fly If They’re Cold

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Did you know that butterflies cannot actually fly if they are cold? They need an ideal body temperature of like 85 degrees in order to fly. This is because they are cold-blooded animals and thus cannot regulate their own body temperatures. Because of this fact, therefore, the surrounding air temperature has a big impact on their ability to function. If the temperature falls below 55 degrees, they are actually rendered immobile thus unable to flee from predators. Yikes! That’s quite something. Imagine the air temperature having a control on your mobility. It really is a bit enslaving.

To deal with this, cooler days typically require a butterfly to warm up its flight muscles by either shivering or basking in the sun.

7. A newly emerged butterfly cannot fly

Pupa stage of the butterfly- Image by GLady from

At the pupa stage, while inside the chrysalis, a developing butterfly usually waits to emerge with its wings collapsed around its body. So when it finally manages to break free of the pupal stage, the butterfly greets the world with tiny shrivelled wings. It must immediately pump body fluid through its wing veins so as to expand them. Once these wings reach their full size, the butterfly has to rest a few hours in order to allow their body to dry and harden before taking its very first flight.

8. Butterflies only live for just a Few Weeks

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Oh, bummer! The most beautiful creatures on earth don’t live for so long. Once they emerge from their chrysalis, butterflies only have like two to four short weeks to live in the majority of cases. During this time, it focuses all of its beings on two tasks: Eating and mating. That’s it! These become the most important goals to achieve in their short-lived lives. However, some of the smallest butterflies like the blue ones may only survive a few days. Nevertheless, those that overwinter as adults like for instance monarchs can live as long as nine months.

9. They are nearsighted but can really see colours.

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So for within 10-12 feet thereabout, a butterfly’s eyesight is quite good, However, anything beyond this distance starts becoming a bit blurry. When they are able to see colours, they can see not just some of the colours that we typically see but a range of ultraviolet colours that are invisible to the human eye. Furthermore, some of them even have ultraviolet markings on their wings to help them identify one another and even locate potential mates. Flowers also display ultraviolet markings that act as kind of a traffic signal to incoming pollinators.

10. They are very smart- they have various tricks they employ to avoid getting eaten.

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The truth is that butterflies rank pretty low on the food chain and have so many hungry predators that are happy to make a meal of them. Therefore, they need some defence mechanisms. To do that, some butterflies fold their wings in order to blend into the background. By using camouflage, they are able to render themselves invisible to predators. It is the opposite for other insects though as they usually wear vibrant colours and patterns that announce their presence quite boldly. Predators have therefore learnt to avoid brightly coloured insects as they usually pack a lot of toxic chemicals.

11. There are around 19,000 butterfly species in the world 

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I know when you think of butterflies, only one type of insect comes to mind. But did you know that there are actually around 19,000 different species of butterflies all over the world? You can actually be able to tell this difference based on the various colours, sizes and patterns they have. That’s why butterflies are different basically. If you were to study their wings, you would notice that a number of them do indeed vary.

13. A group of butterflies is known as a kaleidoscope

Dancing butterflies-Image by Dmitri Posudin from

I honestly did not know about this one but now we are wiser. So a group of butterflies can be called a kaleidoscope, flutter, flight, swarm flock, roost or bivouac. These names basically apply to the same group of butterflies when in different situations. For instance, we say a kaleidoscope of butterflies when the said butterflies are in flight or resting. When looking for liquids in puddles, we call them swarms instead.

14. Adult butterflies have actually four wings and not two

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This is one of the most fascinating facts about butterflies. The fact that they come with four separate wings instead of two. So the ones near their head are known as forewings while those at the back are known as hindwings. All of these four wings move up and down while they are taking a fight thanks to their very strong flight muscles.

15. The Western Pygmy Blue is the world’s smallest butterfly 

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This specie of butterfly known as the Western Pygmy Blue is actually the world’s smallest butterfly. It has a wingspan of only 0.5 inches hence this very deserved title. Usually, the upper side of this butterfly’s wings comes in copper brown with a bit of white colour at the base. They are typically found in alkaline areas like deserts, salt marshes and the barren lands of North America, the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia.

16. The Queen Alexandra鈥檚 Birdwing is the world鈥檚 largest butterfly 

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The biggest specie of butterfly is Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing. This species is typically found in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea and is also actually one of the rarest butterflies in the world. Interestingly enough, for this specie, the male and female differ in size, colour and wingspan although the female is larger than the male butterfly as it has a wingspan of more than 25.4 cm while the male one has about 17.8 cm. The female ones come in brown wings that have white markings.

17. You will find butterflies on every continent except Antarctica 

Antarctica- Photo by Cassie Matias on

Quite honestly we’ve all heard myths and stories about Antarctica but I never thought that there’s a specie of insect that may not be living there. To be fair though, it has nothing to do with bias but everything to do with the climate. So typically, butterflies thrive in warm areas as they are cold-blooded and basically depend on warm climates to survive. That’s why you won’t find them in Antarctica. This place is very, very cold and during winter, butterflies usually do one of two things. They can either stay in a state of dormant until the winter season passes or migrate to warmer locations. This is why cold locations like Antarctica are not ideal for a butterfly’s survival.

18.  The lifecycle of the butterfly is in four stages 

Caterpillar, the second stage of a butterfly- Photo by sahil muhammed on

Typically speaking, the lifespan of a butterfly happens in four stages. These are the butterfly egg, larva/caterpillar, pupa and the adult stage. The butterfly egg is when the female butterflies lay eggs on leaves or stems of plants usually done in spring, summer or fall. They then morph into the caterpillar stage and these leaves and stems become food for the caterpillars. The caterpillar will continue to eat until it grows and sheds its skin up to five times.

The butterfly’s lifecycle happens in four stages: the butterfly egg, larva or caterpillar, pupa, and adult stage. Depending on the surrounding conditions, the caterpillar can stay in this stage for about two to five weeks. When the caterpillar fully grows, it stops eating and moves to the next stage which is the pupa stage or better known as Chrysalis. At this stage, they remain suspended under the branches or leaves of plants. It will remain in this stage for a few weeks and then eventually evolve into an adult butterfly. The adult stage is now what we know as butterflies. This is the stage where the butterfly develops fully with legs and antennae, compound eyes and even wings. While at the caterpillar stage, they basically eat, at the adult stage they mostly lay eggs.

19. Some butterflies may be poisonous 

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As much as they are cute and beautiful to look at, some of them may actually be poisonous. This is their surest way of defending themselves against predators. Sure! They don’t have stingers or fangs to inject toxins into predators, but they usually store toxins in their bodies at the caterpillar stage. This way, they find a defence mechanism they can use whenever they feel threatened.

20. Butterflies are important pollinators 

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Usually, butterflies help to pollinate plants. they typically move from one plant to another in search of nectar and once a butterfly lands on a plant, it uses its proboscis to drink nectar from the flowering plants. They feed on the nectar from these plants then carry on pollen to other plants. This is what will enable the plants to actually reproduce.

21. Butterflies play a major role in increasing biodiversity 

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Also, butterflies play a very key role in increasing the biodiversity of plant species and are also good indicators of what a healthy ecosystem should look like. Climate changes can only affect migratory and butterfly temperatures while loss of habitats can also increase predation and migration of butterflies. 

22. It’s really easy to attract butterflies to your garden

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You have probably wondered before, how you can attract butterflies to your garden because obviously, they are a sight to behold. So who wouldn’t want them in their garden? The trick is in a plant known scientifically as Buddleia or in layman’s terms, Butterfly Bush. It is known t be the best plant for attracting butterflies because it has a specific flavour of nectar that is highly favoured by a majority of butterfly species.

23. Butterflies attach their eggs to leaves with a special glue

Pupa stage of the butterfly- Image by GLady from

Maybe you’ve wondered, how exactly do those eggs really remain stuck to leaves after they’ve been laid? So the female butterflies usually make a special sticky fluid from their body that basically works like glue. They use this to attach their eggs to plants and this is what keeps the eggs stuck in place until the 4 stages are completed and the butterfly can now fly away.

24. First butterfly ears were identified in 1912

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So for a long time, scientists and botanists, always assumed that butterflies do not have ears and thus are deaf. However, in 1912, after thorough observations and tests, the ears of a butterfly were identified. They must be pretty tiny for all these scientists to have missed the before.

25. The skipper butterfly flies so fast, it could out space a horse

A skipper butterfly- Author; Muhammad Mahdi Karim-

Just think about how fast a horse usually is. Now imagine this small creature that can easily be dismissed and the fact that it can out space a whole horse. Typically, most butterflies fly at 5 -12 mph but the skipper butterfly is a different story. She can be really, really fast.

26. Butterflies have their skeletons on the outside of their bodies

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Just like any other insect, butterflies too have skeletons on the outside of their bodies. This is called an exoskeleton. Do you remember your biology class? Well, this is that same exoskeleton you heard about in that class. So the main purpose of this is to protect the insect and jeep water inside their bodies so that they don’t dry out and die.

27. Representation of butterflies can be seen in Egyptian Frescoes at Thebes

Butterfly art- Image by JL G from

So these Frescoes date all the way back to 3,500 years ago. What this means is that butterflies were in existence a very long time ago and thus they are a very old specie. Since the beginning of time and humanity, they have also been there. Pretty cool, huh?!

28. Butterflies drink turtle tears

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What! Pretty bizarre when you attempt to picture this. A video of butterflies in the Peruvian Amazon actually shows them drinking tears of turtle and if not for the video, you can easily think it is a fairytale story. Nonetheless, they have a reason for this behaviour and that is due to the sodium component found in turtle tears. Due to the reason of them not being able to obtain sodium from their usual diet of nectar, they have to look for an alternative. Typically sodium can be found in feces, dirt and now we know turtle tears!

29. They are usually harmed by factory farming

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When factory farms are being built, large chunks of land and this includes butterflies’ habitats and sources of food are usually destroyed. Furthermore, the toxic pesticide (glyphosate) applied to these crops is quite upsetting to their migratory patterns and hence drives them towards extinction.

30. Butterflies are made of chitin

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Just like other insects, butterflies are also made up of chitin. This is a strong, waterproof kind of body part that protects the butterflies. Even crabs, snail shells and mushrooms are made of chitin.

It’s strong, waterproof, and can be used to make all kinds of bodies. Crabs are made out of it, snail shells are made out of it – even mushrooms are made out of it!