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Possibly the original butter-fly. [6] A male brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) in flight.The Oxford English Dictionary derives the word straightforwardly from Old English butorflēoge, butter-fly; similar names in Old Dutch and Old High German show that the name is ancient, but modern Dutch and German use different words (vlinder and Schmetterling) and the common name often varies substantially ...
The scales on butterfly wings are pigmented with melanins that can produce the colours black and brown. The white colour in the butterfly family Pieridae is a derivative of uric acid, an excretory product. [13] [40]: 84 Bright blues, greens, reds, and iridescence are usually created not by pigments but through the microstructure of the scales.
Many species are brightly coloured and include popular species such as the emperors, monarch butterfly, admirals, tortoiseshells, and fritillaries. However, the under wings are, in contrast, often dull and in some species look remarkably like dead leaves, or are much paler, producing a cryptic effect that helps the butterflies blend into their ...
While the specimens exhibited the same graceful flight patterns which have earned the genus Idea such names as “forest nymph” or “paper butterfly”, upon closer observation, it was evident that the butterflies displayed some divergent physical characteristics which distinguished them from butterflies common in this geographical area, the ...
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 ...
The delicate charm of a butterfly, with its fabulous fluttering wings and jewel-toned hues, is a sight to behold.Even so, you may have, at some point in your life, wondered if these colorful ...
The queen butterfly (Danaus gilippus) is a North and South American butterfly in the family Nymphalidae with a wingspan of 80–85 mm (3 + 1 ⁄ 8 – 3 + 3 ⁄ 8 in). [3] It is orange or brown with black wing borders and small white forewing spots on its dorsal wing surface, and reddish ventral wing surface fairly similar to the dorsal surface.
Another form of defence is the taste of the butterfly. Similar to the monarch butterfly, the Apollo butterfly produces a repulsive taste to its predator. The butterfly seems to get this foul taste from its plant host, the Sedum stenopetalum. There is a bitter tasting cyanoglucoside, sarmentonsin, which is found in both the butterfly and the plant.