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Cloaked in bright and beautiful colors, butterflies are among the most diverse animals on Earth. Share the same insect order, Lepidoptera, with moths, they seem to appear almost everywhere. In total, there are nearly 20,000 documented species in the wild. Some of the most spectacular and colorful are located deep within the rainforest, but they come in so many different variations that each species seems to have adapted to the environmental conditions in which it evolved. This article covers some fascinating details about where butterflies live and how they make their home in the wild.
Where in the world are butterflies found?
The short answer to the question is that butterflies live on every continent around the world, with the exception of: Antarctica. They are very diverse and well adapted to local conditions, but their distribution is not evenly distributed. Because butterflies depend on warm climates to survive, the vast majority of them are found in Central and South America, Africa, southern Asia, and Australia. Some species are also specialized for surviving in temperate and cold climates; during the summer they can be found almost as far north as the Arctic. The rise of globalization and fast travel has benefited some species (while harmed others). The monarch butterfly, once found exclusively in the Americas, has also spread to parts of Spain, Australia, New Zealand, and the rest of the Asian Pacific.
What habitats do butterflies prefer?
Butterflies have adapted to survive in just about every habitat and ecological niche imaginable, except the most extreme cold. They usually prefer warm, clearings or woodlands with just enough vegetation to provide a home and food source; many are found in the rainforests and temperate forests also. Other possible locations include inhospitable deserts, swampy wetlands, long coasts and even huge mountain peaks over 20,000 feet high. Unless they migrate, butterflies usually don’t travel far from their birthplace.
Where do butterflies live in winter?
The answer to that question depends on the species. Because butterfly physiology (as mentioned earlier) relies heavily on external heat sources for their survival, the butterfly species that live closer to the equator and in the rainforest will tend to stay in the same place for most of the year. These warm-climate species do have ways of coping with the changing wet and dry seasons, but they don’t migrate long distances and usually remain active almost year-round.
Butterflies have a harder time surviving in cold or temperate regions where winter temperatures dip below freezing at least part of the time. When this happens, they have two options for survival: either they enter a state of prolonged dormancy (not quite the same as hibernation), or they travel to warmer climates to keep out the cold. The first strategy is known as hibernation. Butterflies can hibernate at any stage of their lives: eggs, larva, pupa or adult. The larval stage is the most common time for hibernation, simply because butterflies spend so much time in this stage. The pupa is also a common hibernation stage as they can remain dormant and protected in the silk cocoon, but it is much less common for them to hibernate in the egg or adult stage. Some species can overwinter multiple stages of their lives, usually merging the larval and pupal stages into one season.
As daylight begins to shorten in winter, these butterflies will find a safe tree hole, man-made structure, or other crevices in which they can easily survive the freezing temperatures of the environment. Then they will drastically reduce their activity level to avoid unnecessary energy, and live on the fat reserves they have acquired in the summer and autumn. This is akin to a state of long sleep (although it doesn’t technically fit the definition of hibernation).
Migration is a much less common strategy than hibernation, as many adults die before winter even begins. The process itself also entails enormous difficulties and dangers for a butterfly, which is why species must be highly adapted to make the journey. The first challenge is successful navigation. They must instinctively know where to go, even if they have never made the journey before. Butterflies seem to use the position of the sun, tested against the internal rhythm of their biological clocks (so they know what time it is), to find the right direction. To locate the sun, they seem to rely on ultraviolet and polarized light, far beyond the capabilities of normal human visibility, to navigate long routes and orientate oneself, even in cloudy conditions.
The monarch butterfly is perhaps the most well-known of all migratory species – and also one of the few that makes regular annual migrations such as birds. They instinctively seem to travel thousands of miles south in the direction of… California and Mexico, which sleep at night by the roadside in pine, cedar, and fir trees. When they roost, they get close together, sometimes in the millions. Then in the spring they make the opposite journey to their normal breeding grounds.
But as for the length of the trek, nothing can beat the painted butterfly woman, who undertakes a long migration between Africa and Europe Eeurope at periods in time (migration does not occur every year and may be related in some way to changing environmental conditions). One type of British painted lady travels 9,000
mi
les, the longest ever. This migration takes so long that several generations will live and die before it is completed.
What plants do butterflies prefer?
The answer to that question depends on the life stage of the butterfly in the wild. caterpillars are specialized to spend the first few months or years of life on a specific host plant, feeding during the day and sleeping at night until they are old enough to turn into adults. For example, the monarch butterfly larva prefers to host any of the milkweeds, including the California milkweed, the Arizona milkweed, the common milkweed, and many other species. Because milkweed is so common, there is almost no shortage of food for the monarch larva to eat. The European peacock butterfly, on the other hand, will look for the stinging nettle, small nettle or hop plant to lay its eggs on.
Some species are so highly specialized that they have nowhere to live but their host plant. For example, the Karner blue butterfly is completely dependent on oak savannas for survival. This species is shown extinct in parts of Canada where this habitat has completely disappeared. Other species spend part of their lives as larvae in underground burrows or somewhere near the ground. Some of these butterflies have a unique symbiotic relationship in which ants help them survive and in return the butterflies take care of the ants with sweet honeydew.
When fully grown, the caterpillar transforms into a pupa by wrapping itself in a silk cocoon. These pupae are usually found suspended from a branch, hidden under a leaf or buried underground close to the place of birth. Once it has emerged from its cocoon, the adult will be fully capable of flying, opening up a much wider range of travel.
At this point in its life, the butterfly is highly specialized in feeding on certain flower parts such as nectar or pollen with its long, coiled proboscis (although some adults that live a very short time don’t eat at all before reproducing and dying). The wings help make them highly mobile to travel from flower to flower in search of food. They tend to do most of their feeding during the day and then sleep at night hanging upside down on leaves and twigs hidden among the foliage. Migratory species generally have the widest range of food sources to feed on along the entire migratory route.
Next one: How do butterflies reproduce?
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