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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 ...
Life cycle of the monarch butterfly. Butterflies in their adult stage can live from a week to nearly a year depending on the species. Many species have long larval life stages while others can remain dormant in their pupal or egg stages and thereby survive winters. [36] The Melissa Arctic (Oeneis melissa) overwinters twice as a caterpillar. [37]
English: Butterfly life cycle diagram, in English. The butterfly is the Southern Monarch (Danaus erippus). Date: 1 August 2020: Source:
The life cycle of the monarch butterfly. Like all Lepidoptera, monarchs undergo complete metamorphosis; their life cycle has four phases: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Monarchs transition from eggs to adults during warm summer temperatures in as little as 25 days, extending to as many as seven weeks during cool spring conditions.
Larva of the Papilio xuthus butterfly. A larva (/ ˈ l ɑːr v ə /; pl.: larvae / ˈ l ɑːr v iː /) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle.
The butterflies form the clade Rhopalocera, which is composed of three superfamilies: Hedyloidea (the moth butterfly family Hedylidae), the Hesperioidea (the skipper family Hesperiidae), and the Papilionoidea (the true butterfly families Papilionidae, Pieridae, Nymphalidae, Lycaenidae, and Riodinidae). All of these families are monophyletic.
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.
It uses this to frighten away predators, by flashing its wings rapidly. The wingspan of the blue morpho butterfly ranges from 7.5–20 cm (3.0–7.9 in). The entire blue morpho butterfly life cycle, from egg to adult is only 115 days. This butterfly undergoes metamorphosis from larva to butterfly.