How Butterflies Get Their Colors To Become Beautiful

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                                  Image by MrGajowy3 -Pixabay

Do you know why Butterflies are beautiful? How do butterflies get their colours to become beautiful? To know about it read the following article on butterflies. 

Butterflies are beautiful forms of nature with myriad striking colours and attractive varied designs. The fragile beauties hover over flowers dancing and adorning the gardens bringing in beautiful pictures in sunlight.  The winged insects are elements of biodiversity that has fascinated man over centuries. Butterflies are creatures that help in the propagation of plants and thus preserve the rich habitats of the environment. These delicate beautify presents pleasantness, charm and flights of movements. 

Butterflies bring about pleasant images of nature, spring season, gardens, flowers, sunshine, warmth, and life. The winged beauties are a delight to watch and their fluttering flight is a visual treat to one’s eyes. Butterflies are beautiful insects with large brightly coloured and striking wings   Butterflies are amazing creatures found everywhere on the earth except Antarctica.

 Butterflies belong to Class Insects and order Lepidoptera, the term derived from Greek which means “scaly wings”. The body of the butterfly is divided into three sections- the head, thorax, and abdomen. The thorax consists of three segments, each with a pair of legs. The entire body is covered with dust-like scales.  Butterflies are fragile creatures with bug eyes, having a long proboscis, and colourful spots on their wings.  The long proboscis is used for sipping nectar from flowers and when not in use it gets coiled. They also get their food from pollen, rotting fruit, dung, decaying flesh, and tree sap.  

Adult butterflies consume only liquids. They use their feet for tasting and their antennae to sense scents and the wind. The antenna is in various shapes and colours, they may be a pointed angle or hook-like or knobbed shaped. They have very good vision and are sensitive to the ultraviolet spectrum. Butterflies get attracted to red flowers.



                                                                      Krishna Peacock

The wings are transparent covered with thousands of tiny scales overlapping one another. The scales are arranged in amazing intricate designs, different for different species that give their beauty to the butterflies. The wings are made up of a protein called chitin which is transparent and the scales give butterflies their colour. The colours are the reflections of various colours through the scales. The scales are pigmented with melanin, which gives them the colours blacks and browns. The uric acid derivatives and flavones give them yellows, blues, greens, and red colours. The microstructural scales and hairs produce iridescent colours. 

The butterflies use their wings, to defend themselves against their enemies by blending with their surroundings.  The colourful patterns of wings, camouflage, and mimicry to frighten the predators and thus protects them. The four wings help it during its flight and some, like the monarch and the painted lady, migrate over long distances. In the spring season, their migration is in the reverse direction.  When at rest they hold their wings vertically above their bodies.


                                                                               Monarch Butterfly

 They have a fascinating lifecycle of four stages- egg, larva(caterpillar), pupa(chrysalis), and imago(adult). The transformation of a butterfly from an egg to an adult butterfly is an amazing form of life. Butterflies sit on warm spots and bask in the sunlight to increase their body temperature. A butterfly’s average lifespan is about three to four weeks only and the entire life cycle lasts between two to eight months.

Butterflies are widely used in various sectors for different purposes and benefits.
They are pollinators for many species of plants. They are the bearers of flagships for the conservation of the environment and healthy nature. Butterflies occupy an important place in the food chain and are indicators of healthy ecosystems, and represent beauty, freedom, and peace. Butterflies are important for mankind, they are used for biological research, for pollination, mimicry, the study of evolution, preservation of species, protection of plants etc.  Hence they become very important for their conservation


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Nature Enchanting Beauty: 

Nature is beautiful and God's Gifts to Mankind. The enchanting world has breathtaking scenery, amazing wildlife, and wonderful creating. Visit and read the following power about Nature

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