The most airy creatures on Earth - butterflies - amaze the imagination with their beauty and diversity. Especially they fascinate people with their coloring. Many with their color palette resemble a peacock's tail or a motley fan. This living being is never disgusted. Nothing compares to the graceful and easy flight of a butterfly! Spring, beauty and eternity are associated with it. Butterfly is a symbol of happiness, fidelity, love, immortality. In another way, they are also called Lepidoptera. Biologists distinguish the following close orders of insects: butterflies, homoptera, dipterans, fleas. You will be interested to learn about the features of these wonderful insects.
Butterfly Squad, or Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera are the largest group of arthropod insects. A characteristic feature of all representatives of the order of butterflies is the scaly multi-colored cover of the body and wings. These scales are nothing more than modified hairs. They have different colors,make complex and bizarre drawings. These patterns serve as a disguise to hide the insect or signal inedibility. For most species, the patterns on the wings are of an identifying nature, so that individuals of the same species can recognize each other.
Another identifying feature of the order of butterflies is the sucking mouth apparatus in the form of a long tubular proboscis. To eat, the butterfly extends its long proboscis, plunges it deep into the flower and sucks in the nectar.
The main source of food for the order of butterflies is the nectar of flowers, so they are considered the main pollinators of flowering plants. There is an opinion that with the appearance of flowers on Earth, butterflies arose.
Butterfly breeding
Everyone knows that butterflies are nocturnal and diurnal. These insects undergo a complete transformation in the process of development. First, they lay eggs, which hatch into larvae that are completely different from adults. These are caterpillars. With the help of salivary glands, caterpillars secrete saliva and silk threads. It is from them that the caterpillars weave a cocoon for the chrysalis. The caterpillar will turn into it after passing several links. After some time, an adult butterfly (imago) flies out of the pupa. The longest lifespan of adults is several months.
Features of food
Food for caterpillars are plants. But some species can be called predators and parasites. The main food of adult butterflies is nectar, vegetable juice oranimal origin. In some species of butterflies, the proboscis is not developed at all, they do not feed, therefore they live for several hours or days.
The annual development cycle of a butterfly is different, depending on the species. Most often, butterflies give one generation per year. There are species that give two or three generations per year.
Building personality
Lepidoptera can range in size from 2 mm to 15 cm. The smallest butterfly is considered to be a baby moth that lives on the Canary Islands. The largest species is the Maak sailboat, which is common in Europe.
Like other insects, butterflies have an abdomen, a head, and a thorax. The outer skeleton is a strong chitinous cover. Butterflies have two pairs of wings with modified scale hairs. It is with the help of these scales that the wings acquire pattern and color. Butterflies can fly long distances. These insects come in two genders.
Insect Orders: Butterflies, Homoptera, Diptera, Fleas
Today there are about 150,000 squamous species that live on all continents except Antarctica. Tropical areas are rich in brightly colored butterflies. In addition to butterflies, there are several more similar orders of insects: homoptera, diptera, fleas. We invite you to get acquainted with the main representatives of each squad:
- Hydroptera. There are over 30,000 species. These include cicadas, whiteflies, psyllids, mealybugs, aphids, gall midges, scale insects. All of them are sucking insects,which feed on plant sap. They have a piercing-sucking mouth like a proboscis. Why are they called equal-winged? Nature endowed them with two pairs of transparent wings - front and back.
- Diptera. This order includes a million species. They originated more than 100 million years ago. Everyone is familiar with the bites of mosquitoes and annoying flies. They have a front pair of wings. Their hind wings can be called small appendages - h alteres that maintain balance during flight.
- Fleas. There are over 1000 species. These are small insects without wings and with flattened sides. The size of fleas is from 1 to 5 mm. They have a large abdomen and legs, but a small chest and head. They have a slippery and smooth body, dotted with bristles and hairs. All this in order to make it easier to move through the fur of animals where fleas live. The adult flea is a bloodsucker that parasitizes birds and mammals.
In nature and human life, Lepidoptera are of great importance. After all, butterflies perfectly pollinate plants. Many large butterflies, such as the swallowtail, Apollo, simply fascinate with their beauty. They become exhibits in many entomological collections.
