The most airy creatures on Earth - butterflies amaze the imagination with beauty and diversity. Especially they fascinate people with their coloring. Many with their color palette resemble a peacock tail or a colorful fan. This living being never causes disgust. The butterfly’s elegant and light flight is incomparable! 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, damselfly, dipterans, fleas. You will be interested to learn about the features of these wonderful insects.
Squad of butterflies, or Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera are the largest group of arthropod type insects . A characteristic feature of all representatives of the order of butterflies is a scaly multi-colored cover of the body and wings. These scales are nothing more than mutated hairs. They have a different color, can make complex and bizarre drawings. These patterns serve as a disguise that conceals an insect or signals inedibility. For most species, the patterns on the wings are identifiable 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. For eating, the butterfly puts forward a long proboscis, plunges it into the depths of the flower and absorbs 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. It is believed that with the appearance of flowers on Earth, butterflies arose.
Butterfly Breeding
Everyone knows that butterflies are night and day. These insects undergo a complete transformation in the process of development . First, they lay their eggs, and larvae hatch completely different from adults. These are caterpillars. With the help of the salivary glands of the caterpillar, saliva and silk threads are secreted . It is from them that the caterpillars weave a cocoon for the pupa. The caterpillar will turn into it, having passed several links. After some time, an adult butterfly (imago) flies out of the pupa. The longest lifespan of an imago is several months.
Power Features
Food for the caterpillars are plants. But some species can be called predators and parasites. The main diet of adult butterflies is nectar, juice of vegetable or animal origin. In some species of butterflies, the proboscis is not developed at all, they do not feed, so they live for several hours or days.
The annual cycle of butterfly development is different, depending on the species. Most often, butterflies give one generation in a year. There are species that give two or three generations per year.
Building individuality
Lepidoptera can have sizes from 2 mm to 15 cm. The smallest butterfly is considered to be the little 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, head and chest. The outer skeleton is a strong chitinous cover. Butterflies have two pairs of wings with modified hairs-scales. It is with the help of these scales that the wings acquire a pattern and color. Butterflies can fly long distances. These insects come in two genders.
Squads of insects: butterflies, damselfly, dipterans, fleas
Today, there are about 150,000 scaly species that live on all continents except Antarctica. Especially brightly colored butterflies are rich in tropical areas. In addition to butterflies, there are several more similar orders of insects: homoptera, dipterous, fleas. We offer to get acquainted with the main representatives of each detachment:
- Diptera. There are over 30,000 species. This includes cicadas, whiteflies, leaf flies, mealybugs, aphids, gall midges, scale insects. All of them are sucking insects that feed on plant sap. They have a piercing-sucking mouth like a proboscis. Why are they called isoptera? Nature endowed them with two pairs of transparent wings - front and rear.
- Two winged. A million species belong to this order. They arose more than 100 million years ago. Everyone knows the bites of mosquitoes and annoying flies. They have the presence of a front pair of wings. Their hind wings can be called small appendages - hummers, maintaining balance during the flight.
- Fleas. There are more than 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 move easier along the fur of animals where fleas live. An adult flea is a bloodsucker that parasitizes birds and mammals.
Lepidoptera are of great importance in nature and human life. After all, butterflies pollinate plants perfectly. Many large butterflies, such as swallowtail, apollo, are simply mesmerized by their beauty. They become exhibits of many entomological collections.