Everyone has paused at one time or another to watch a beautiful butterfly flit from flower to flower. Many people have used the butterfly as a subject for a science or biology project in school or university. However, what do you really know about this interesting insect? Take our quiz to learn more about the beautiful butterfly.
Why is it that you can often observe butterflies moving their wings even when they are resting?
Moving wings is the only way for butterflies to scare off predators with their wing patterns.
Moving wings is the only way for butterflies to keep their muscles warm up for quick flight.
Moving wings is the only way for butterflies to cool themselves when exposed to full sunlight.
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Even when resting, butterflies are often preparing for flight by keeping their wing muscles warm enough to move quickly. Butterflies spend most of their time airborne.
Why is it that butterflies have such beautiful wings?
Butterfly wings serve as camouflage to disguise them from predators or to scare off predators.
Butterfly wings serve as a way for other butterflies to identify a mate or to impress a potential mate.
Both of the above are true of the purpose for colorful butterfly wings.
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Butterflies use colors on their wings for camouflage and as a warning to predators, which helps them stay alive long enough to reproduce. They also use wing shape and color to identify, and sometimes impress, a mate.
What is often the last event in an adult butterfly’s life?
Migration for thousands of miles to try to survive through the winter is often the last event in a butterfly’s life.
Finding a mate and reproduction are often the last events in a butterfly’s life.
Guarding their eggs until they hatch is often the last event in a butterfly’s life.
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Finding a mate and reproducing are often the last events in a butterfly's life. Unfortunately, many butterflies do not even last long enough to reproduce.
What is the longest that any species of butterflies lives?
maximum is one year, typically less
maximum of one and a half years
maximum of two years
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The maximum that any butterfly can live is one year, but typically it is less than a year. Even butterflies that hibernate for the winter or migrate before the winter mate and lay eggs in the spring just before all the adults die.
What do butterflies in the caterpillar stage do before they become adult butterflies?
Caterpillars feed voraciously and at some point, they spin a cocoon before finally emerging as butterflies.
Caterpillars feed voraciously then they shed their skin to reveal a chrysalis and later emerge as a butterfly.
Caterpillars feed voraciously before wrapping themselves in a leaf and finally emerge as a butterfly.
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A butterfly starts its life as a caterpillar, which hatches from an egg, eats voraciously and eventually sheds its skin to reveal a chrysalis. The chrysalis is a protective shell in which the caterpillar becomes a butterfly.
What is the process of a caterpillar emerging from its chrysalis as an adult butterfly called?
ecloses
arises
metamorphosis
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The process is known as eclosion, which means to emerge from a pupal case. The butterfly emerges and spreads its wings to allow them to dry before it flies for the first time.
What function do the butterfly’s movable antennae perform in addition to detecting smells?
Butterfly antennae sense air movement of nearby predators with tiny hairs along their surfaces.
Butterfly antennae are capable of detecting magnetic north that they use to navigate to their breeding spot.
Butterfly antennae have structures for sensing direction and position at the base.
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Butterflies have moveable, segmented antennae, which have organs for detecting smells at the tips and structures for sensing a butterfly's direction and position at the base.
How do butterflies decide what is good food and what is not?
Butterflies use their sense of smell to decide what is good as food and what is not.
Butterflies use labial palps at the base of their mouthparts to decide what is good as food and what is not.
Both of the above are employed by butterflies to decide what is good as food and what is not.
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There are labial palps at the base of a butterfly’s mouth parts that help it decide what's good as food and what they should not eat. However, butterflies don't rely solely on the labial palps to find food.
A butterfly has a coiled tongue that it uncoils to ingest pollen and other food.
A butterfly has a coiled tube called a proboscis that uncoils to suck flower nectar from a plant.
A butterfly has a long tube that extends from its positing alongside its thorax to siphon nectar from a flower.
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A butterfly has a proboscis, a hollow tube that it uncoils to eat. This proboscis lets a butterfly retrieve and swallow pollen and other food, which is digested in organs in the butterfly's abdomen.
What is it that gives a butterfly’s wings their brilliant colors?
Butterfly wings are actually transparent and the color comes from layers of tiny scales.
Butterfly wings receive color from pigments developed from differing minerals derived during feeding as a caterpillar.
Butterfly wings develop color from feeding on certain flowers in the first four days after emerging from a chrysalis.
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Butterfly wings are actually transparent and their color comes from layers of tiny scales. These scales are unlike fish scales in that they are structured more like short tiny hairs.
What does a newly emerged butterfly have to do as soon as it has inflated and dried its wings?
A butterfly will immediately begin seeking food to energize its depleted body.
A butterfly will clean all of its new sensory organs so it is ready to seek food.
A butterfly will get rid of accumulated waste as it transformed and any remaining food from its caterpillar stage.
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A butterfly must get rid of any waste produced during its transformation and remains of its last meal as a caterpillar. This waste is known as meconium, and has a bright red, often bloody appearance.
What is the last thing a newly emerged butterfly does before heading out to hunt food?
A newly formed butterfly has to join its feeding tube together by hooking up the two halves.
A newly formed butterfly has to exercise its proboscis so it coils and uncoils seamlessly before it hardens slightly.
A newly formed butterfly has to flap its wings to strengthen and warm muscles before an inaugural flight.
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When the butterfly emerges, its proboscis is in two separate pieces that join with tiny hooks and fringes. The butterfly has to curl and twist the two halves of its proboscis to create one drinking tube.
At what temperature do butterfly’s bodies work most efficiently?
79 degrees F
82 degrees F
90 degrees F
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Butterfly’s bodies work most efficiently at an internal temperature of 82 degrees Fahrenheit (28 Celsius). Butterflies cannot move their wing muscles if they are too cold, leaving them at the mercy of predators and unable to feed.
What can butterflies do to warm themselves when the sun is not warm enough to allow flight?
Butterflies will often bask in the sun with their wings fully open to catch any warmth available.
Butterflies will often be found resting on warm rocks to soak up heat stored in the rock.
Both of the above are strategies that butterflies employ to warm their thorax where the wings are attached.
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You may see butterflies basking in the sun with their wings open to catch any warmth available from the sun’s rays. Butterflies will often rest on warm rocks to soak up any heat from underneath.
Why do butterflies often fly in short, rapid bursts to get to the flowers rather that flying directly in one smooth pattern?
Butterflies loose heat as they fly much as we blow on food to cool it so they need to warm up between flights.
Butterflies fly in this way to throw predators off from where exactly they are heading.
With their tiny bodies, butterflies always have to recharge energy after each short flight before moving on.
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Butterflies' bodies get colder as cool breezes move over them, just as a hot spoonful of soup cools off when you blow over its surface. Butterflies fly in short, rapid bursts, to stay warm.
How many butterfly species actually migrate over long distances, similar to but not as far as the famous monarch butterflies?
300
200
100
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There are about 200 species of butterflies that migrate long distances to overwintering grounds. The monarch butterfly makes its journey to overwintering grounds in California and Mexico in several stages involving many generations of butterflies.
Why is it that butterflies are often observed drinking from very shallow water or puddles?
Butterflies need minerals and salt that they can only get from urine, dung and standing water.
Butterflies need water and shallow puddles or still ponds are the safest place to drink without getting very wet.
Butterflies have small sensors on their feet that help detect food and they need to wash of the pollen occasionally.
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In order to reproduce, butterflies need minerals and salt that they can get only from urine, dung and standing water. Plant nectar is not capable of providing all of a butterfly’s nutritional needs.
Is there anything else that butterflies eat often, besides nectar from flowers and water from still ponds or puddles?
Butterflies often eat juices from the surface of over ripened or rotting fruit.
Butterflies often prefer to drink from fresh fruit and have pointed proboscis in order to pierce a fruit’s tough skin.
Both of the above answers are items that butterflies consume.
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Some butterflies pierce a fruit's skin to drain juices from inside the fruit and have a pointed proboscis, making it easier to puncture the skin of a fruit. Others will drink juices from the surface of rotting fruit.
What is a genuine threat to survival of several butterfly species and resulted in several species appearing on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife endangered species list?
pesticides use
specimen collection
urbanization
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Pesticides and urbanization pose a serious threat to butterfly populations, but as surprising as it may seem, too many butterfly collectors have resulted in several species appearing on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife endangered species list.
