Posts Tagged “Facts”
- Adult Butterflies do not grow in size as they get older.
- Adult butterflies are active in the day. Moths are active at night.
- Adult butterflies communicate through chemical cues – the males produce chemicals called pheromones to seduce the females.
- Adult butterflies do not eat—they only drink! They sip liquids from flowers, juice from rotten fruit, and may even drink sweat and liquid animal waste. When a butterfly’s feet come in contact with a sweet liquid, its feeding tube unfolds.
- A resting butterfly holds its wings together above it’s back. Moths holds it’s wings horizontally.
- Between emerging from its egg and entering the pupa stage, a caterpillar increases to over 27000 times its original size.
- Butterflies are a valuable source of food for various birds, which are as necessary for maintaining the ecological balance.
- Butterflies can’t hear, but they can feel vibrations.
- Butterflies can be found mostly anywhere in the world where it is not too hot nor too cold.
- Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.
- Butterflies can see red, green, and yellow.
- Butterflies can see ultraviolet light which makes the markings on flowers very vivid to them and guides them to the nectar tubes.
- Butterflies don’t have lungs.
- Butterflies fly during the day, have a knob-like antennae, and close their wings when resting.
- Butterflies have six legs and feet.
- Butterflies have very brief life spans. Some – usually the ones found in the Tropics – can live up to a year, but others live anywhere from a few months to a few weeks to even a few hours.
- Butterflies range in size from a tiny 1/8 inch to a huge almost 12 inches.
- Butterflies taste food by standing on it. This is because their taste sensors are found in their feet.
- Butterflies typically lay their eggs in late spring and hatch 3-6 days after they are laid. It takes 3-4 weeks for a caterpillar to pupate and 9-14 days to emerge as a adult.
- Butterflies weigh as little as two rose petals.
- ‘Butterflies’ were known was as ‘Butter-colored Flies’ and that later became ‘Butterfly’.
- Female butterflies usually are bigger and live longer than male butterflies.
- Instead of mouths, Butterflies have a long straw-like structure called proboscis.
- Many butterflies are territorial and fight, chasing others out of their territory.
- Many butterflies can taste with their feet to find out whether the leaf they sit on is good to lay eggs on to be their caterpillars’ food or not.
- Most butterflies make no sound, but some in Florida and Texas make a loud clicking sound with their wings.
- Pollen gets attached to the legs of the Butterfly and is carried from plant to plant, assisting in fertilization and the propagation of new seeds and plants.
- Since butterflies are cold blooded it is necessary for them to warm up their flight muscles. This is done by basking in the sun in order to absorb heat.
- Some Butterflies are migratory. They flies thousands of miles in the winter to places having a warmer climate, and return in the spring.
- Some Butterflies lay their eggs on the underside of specific plants, others lay them in mid-flight.
- The largest threat to butterflies is loss of habitat.
- There are about 28,000 known Butterfly species throughout the world.
- The top butterfly flight speed is 12 miles per hour. Some moths can fly 25 miles per hour!
- The wings of Butterflies are actually transparent. The vivid colors are due to overlapping bright scales. Butterfly wings are very delicate and can get damaged if handled. The scales too can get rubbed off if touched.
- When it is cloudy or night, the adult butterfly rest by hanging upside down from leaves or twigs.
- When it rains butterflies find shelter in crevasses, in dense undergrowth and tree cavities.
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- Adult ants cannot chew and swallow solid food. Instead they swallow the juice which they squeeze from pieces of food. They throw away the dry part that is left over.
- Ants are clean and tidy insects. Some worker ants are given the job of taking the rubbish from the nest and putting it outside in a special rubbish dump!
- Ants can lift an object up to fifty times their body-weight and carry it over their heads. They don’t do this with their feet, but with their mouths.
- Ants don’t sleep.
- Ants have six legs. Each leg has three joints. The legs of the ant are very strong so they can run very quickly. If a man could run as fast for his size as an ant can, he could run as fast as a racehorse.
- Ants use their antena not only for touch, but also for their sense of smell.
- Each ant colony has at least one or more queens.
- Each colony of ants has its own smell.In this way, intruders can be recognized immediately.
- For every human in the world there are one million ants.
- If a worker ant has found a good source for food, it leaves a trail of scent so that the other ants in the colony can find the food.
- Many ants such as the common Red species have a sting which they use to defend their nest.
- The abdomen of the ant contains two stomachs. One stomach holds the food for itself and second stomach is for food to be shared with other ants.
- The ant has two eyes, each eye is made of many smaller eyes. They are called compound eyes.
- The average life expectancy of an ant is 45-60 days.
- The brain of an ant has about 250,000 brain cells.
- The head of the ant has a pair of large, strong jaws. The jaws open and shut sideways like a pair of scissors.
- The job of the queen is to lay eggs which the worker ants look after.
- The sense of smell of an ant is just as good as a dog’s is.
- The study of ants is called Myrmecology.
- When the only queen ant dies, so does the entire colony, because no new workers are born.
- Worker ants are sterile, they look for food, look after the young, and defend the nest from unwanted visitors.
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