18 Fascinating Butterfly Facts You Didn’t Know

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Diet Provides Protection From Predators

Not only does the amount that caterpillars eat influence the age they live to as adults, but what they consume also determines how likely they are to be eaten by predators. Julia heliconians are among the most unpalatable butterflies to birds because they feed on passionflower vines, which contain trace levels of cyanide. When you’re done reading butterfly facts, take a look at the amazing kinds of butterflies worth knowing.

Courtesy Alan Belongia

Why Are a Butterfly’s Wings Similar to Golf Balls?

Butterfly wings are covered in microscopic ridges and valleys formed by shingle-like layers of scales. As with golf balls, this dimpling increases aerodynamic efficiency and enables butterflies to fly farther.

Courtesy Carol Neel

Butterfly Eyes Have Special Adaptations

Longwing butterflies have many look-alikes and have developed advanced color-sensitive eyes to better tell their mates apart from other species. This advanced sight may also be responsible for their preference for flowers with the same color as their wings, which act as form of camouflage when feeding, according to one study.

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Butterflies Have a Unique Flirting Technique

To better impress females with his pheromones, the male Gulf fritillary flaps his wings directly over her antennae. In order to deal with this perfumed assault, she’s developed additional pheromone openings to help her find the best mate.

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Butterflies ‘Play Possum,’ Too

Camouflage is the first line of defense for mourning cloaks, but when it fails, they will play dead as a last resort. How long each individual stays catatonic varies and is likely linked to genetics.

Courtesy Richard Schnuerer

Some Butterflies Soar Through the Skies

Like birds, insects fly by either flapping their wings or using air currents to glide through the sky. Many thought monarchs were the only butterflies capable of soaring flight until 1979, when mourning cloaks were spotted doing the same thing.

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Butterflies Roost in Groups at Night

Zebra heliconians sleep together each night in formations known as roosts. Clustering like this shows off their warning coloration, making any would-be predator think twice about attacking. Young butterflies often change which branch they perch upon, but older ones have a specific spot they like to come back to each evening.

Courtesy Christine Loranty

Flowers Aren’t Always a Butterfly’s Favorite Food

Question marks are among the few butterflies that rarely visit flowers, instead preferring rotting fruit, dung or even carrion. Their irregular wing margins help them mimic leaves, making them hard to spot among foliage.

Courtesy C. Denise Maples

What Did Ancient Caterpillars Eat?

This one of our butterfly facts will impress history buffs. The very first caterpillars are thought to have eaten plants closely related to modern-day legumes and beans.

Courtesy Laurie Stuchlik

Small Butterflies Go High to Find Mates

Finding mates is challenging when you’re tiny, so many butterflies, including great purple hairstreaks, use landmarks, such as hilltops or tall trees, to find each other. This behavior is called hilltopping.

Courtesy Stephanie Schmidt

Are Male Butterflies Territorial?

Male butterflies defend their mating territories by either chasing off or fighting interlopers. Great purple hairstreak fights can be aerial spectacles: Fighters quickly spiral up into the sky, beating their wings against each other until one of them tires.

Courtesy Melissa Lee

Malachite Butterfly Color Facts

Brilliant colors and iridescent patches on butterfly wings usually come from their delicate scales. However, some butterflies, such as malachites, are unique: While their wing tips are covered in black scales, their iconic green coloring is instead made of cells in their wing membranes filled with a pigmented liquid containing blood and other compounds.

Courtesy Cortney Isetts

When Is the Best Time to Spot a Butterfly?

Bright, sunny days are the best times to spot butterflies in flight. To get off the ground, they need to have a body temperature between 68 and 122 degrees.

Courtesy Laurie Painter

Wing Markings Change With Seasons

Some butterfly facts are surprising! Dark patches on the wings of sulphur and cabbage butterflies help them warm up on chilly mornings. Most markings gradually fade as the growing season progresses.

Courtesy Craig Thiessen

Butterflies and Ants Are Unlikely Allies

The caterpillars of over 200 species of blue butterflies have direct links with ants. Silvery blue larvae provide sugary rewards, known as honeydew, to ants that guard them from wasp attacks. It is secreted from a gland in their abdomens, and the amount they pay up usually depends on the ant species.

Courtesy Corey Wilkins

Tricky Monarch Butterfly Mimics

Viceroys are masters of mimicry—their wide habitat range overlaps with both the monarch and the queen butterflies. Though not as toxic themselves, viceroys resemble these unappetizing cousins to better trick birds. In southern areas where queens are more common than monarchs, the viceroys are darker to mimic the queens more closely.

Courtesy Meagan Brown

Butterflies Need More Than Sugar

Sipping sugar isn’t a complete diet, even for bugs. Many butterflies gather at mud puddles to supplement their nutrition with salts and minerals.

Courtesy Roger Swieringa

Native Plants Are Best for Butterflies

Native plants provide prime real estate for butterflies. Big bushy plants and trees attract the most pollinators, especially in neighborhoods that have gone lawn-free.

Sources

• Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
• University of Missouri – Saint Louis
• Proceedings of The Royal Society
• University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
• University of Florida Entomology & Nematology
• New Jersey Audubon