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Butterfly evolution is the origin and diversification of butterflies through geologic time and over a large portion of the Earth's surface. The earliest known butterfly fossils are from the mid Eocene epoch, between 40-50 million years ago.
The oldest butterfly fossils have been dated to the Paleocene, about 56 million years ago, though molecular evidence suggests that they likely originated in the Cretaceous. [1] Butterflies have a four-stage life cycle, and like other holometabolous insects they undergo complete metamorphosis. [2]
The origin of insect flight remains obscure, since the earliest winged insects currently known appear to have been capable fliers. Some extinct insects (e.g. the Palaeodictyoptera ) had an additional pair of winglets attached to the first segment of the thorax , for a total of three pairs.
Lepidoptera (/ ˌ l ɛ p ɪ ˈ d ɒ p t ər ə / LEP-ih-DOP-tər-ə) or lepidopterans is an order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths.About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organisms, [1] [2] making it the second largest insect order (behind Coleoptera) with 126 families [3] and 46 superfamilies ...
Monarch Butterflies: Increase the Eastern population of the monarch butterfly to 225 million butterflies occupying an area of approximately 15 acres (6 hectares) in the overwintering grounds in Mexico, through domestic/international actions and public-private partnerships, by 2020.
Catalogue of the Butterflies of the United States and Canada. Pyle, R.M. (2002). The Butterflies of Cascadia. Rothschild, L.W. (1895). A revision of the Papilios of the Eastern Hemisphere, exclusive of Africa. Novitates Zoologicae 2(3):167–463 and plates pdf; Rothschild, W. and Jordan, K. (1906). A revision of the American Papilios.
The Pieridae are a large family of butterflies with about 76 genera containing about 1,100 species, mostly from tropical Africa and tropical Asia with some varieties in the more northern regions of North America and Eurasia. [1] Most pierid butterflies are white, yellow, or orange in coloration, often with black spots.
For example, radar records have shown that up to six successive generations of painted lady butterflies (Vanessa cardui) complete a 9,000 miles (14,484 km) round trip from tropical Africa to the Arctic Circle — which is one and a half times the maximum eastern monarch round-trip migration of 6,000 miles (9,656 km). [51]