Though different kinds of butterflies have similar life cycle, you won't find every kind of butterfly everywhere. If you went to the different kinds of places listed below, you could see butterflies in all of them, but the kinds of butterflies would be different from one habitat to the next. Why is that?
Introduction
A butterfly is any of several groups of mainly day-flying insects of the order Lepidoptera, the butterflies and moths.
Like other holometabolous insects, butterflies' life cycle consists of four parts, egg, larva, pupa and adult.
Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight.
Butterflies comprise the true butterflies (superfamily Papilionoidea), the skippers (superfamily Hesperioidea) and the moth-butterflies (superfamily Hedyloidea).
All the many other families within the Lepidoptera are referred to as moths.
A butterfly is an insect of the Order Lepidoptera that belongs to either the superfamily Papilionoidea or the superfamily Hesperioidea (“the skippers”). Some authors would include also members of the superfamily Hedyloidea, the American butterfly moths. Although the skippers (superfamily Hesperioidea) are usually counted as butterflies, they are somewhat intermediate between the rest of the butterflies and the remaining Lepidoptera, the moths.
In reality, the separation of Lepidoptera into butterflies and moths is a common, not a taxonomic classification, and does not involve taxonomic rank.
Butterflies add important economic, ecological, and aesthetic values. As pollinators of flowers, butterflies aid in the cultivation of fruits and vegetables, and in the propagation of wild plant species. Ecologically, they serve as food for many animals—reptiles, fish, amphibians, birds, mammals, other insects, and spiders. Because of their sensitivity to environmental changes, they can serve as warning signs of deleterious conditions. Aesthetically, human fascination with butterflies has led to their being featured in paintings, poetry, and books, and as symbols used for jewelry, wallpaper, and so forth. Butterfly watching is a popular hobby. The life cycle of butterflies also has been depicted as an apt metaphor for eternal life, as the "earth-bound" caterpillar transforms into the ethereal butterfly.
People who study or collect butterflies (or the closely related moths) are called lepidopterists. The study of butterflies is known as butterflying. An older term for a lepidopterist is aurelian.
Some butterflies are now considered endangered species, and the Xerces blue butterfly is the first known butterfly to become extinct in North America.
Copyright © 2010. All rights reserved. Butterfly