Butterfly Scientific Name,Butterfly history,Butterfly families,butterfly Life Cycle,Butterfly Caterpillar Larva,Butterfly Wikipedia.Butterfly HD image.
Hello friends today we are talk about on natural creature Butterfly.
Class: Insecta
Life Cycle
Butterflies in their adult stage can live from a week to nearly a year depending on the species. Many species have long larval life stages while others can remain dormant in their pupal or egg stages and thereby survive winters. The Melissa Arctic (Oeneis melissa) overwinters twice as a caterpillar. Butterflies may have one or more broods per year. The number of generations per year varies from temperate to tropical regions with tropical regions showing a trend towards multivoltinism.
Class: Insecta
Phylum: Arthropoda
Kingdom: Animalia
Lifespan: Painted lady: 12 months
Scientific name: Rhopalocera
Wingspan: Painted lady: 4 – 7.3 cm, Old world swallowtail: 6.5 – 8.6 cm, Cabbage white: 3.2 – 4.7 cm
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight.
History of Butterfly
Our understanding of butterfly origins is based on the study of living Lepidopteran species. We can often learn about evolution from the fossil record, but there are relatively few butterfly fossils. Those that do exist, like the 40-million-year-old Prodryas persophone, are remarkably similar to modern-day forms—so the fossil record sheds little light on the origin of today's butterflies.Many scientists think that the specialized association between today's butterflies and flowering plants suggests that butterflies developed during the Cretaceous Period, often called the "Age of Flowering Plants," 65 million to 135 million years ago—a time when dinosaurs also roamed the earth.Evolutionary relationships among major Lepidopteran groups are not well understood. What we do know is that, despite the attention they receive from scientists and the public alike, butterflies are not the pinnacle of Lepidoptera evolution. One recent theory is that an obscure moth family, the Hedylidae, represents the closest living relatives of the butterflies. Essentially, this theory suggests that butterflies are just a group of brightly colored moths.
| Family | Common name | Characteristics | Image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hedylidae | American moth-butterflies | Small, brown, like geometrid moths; antennae not clubbed; long slim abdomen |  |
| Hesperiidae | Skippers | Small, darting flight; clubs on antennae hooked backwards | .jpg) |
| Lycaenidae | Blues, coppers, hairstreaks | Small, brightly coloured; often have false heads with eyespots and small tails resembling antennae |  |
| Nymphalidae | Brush-footed or four-footed butterflies | Usually have reduced forelegs, so appear four-legged; often brightly coloured |  |
| Papilionidae | Swallowtails | Often have 'tails' on wings; caterpillar generates foul taste with osmeterium organ; pupa supported by silk girdle |  |
| Pieridae | Whites and allies | Mostly white, yellow or orange; some serious pests of Brassica; pupa supported by silk girdle |  |
| Riodinidae | Metalmarks | Often have metallic spots on wings; often conspicuously coloured with black, orange and blue |  |
Butterflies in their adult stage can live from a week to nearly a year depending on the species. Many species have long larval life stages while others can remain dormant in their pupal or egg stages and thereby survive winters. The Melissa Arctic (Oeneis melissa) overwinters twice as a caterpillar. Butterflies may have one or more broods per year. The number of generations per year varies from temperate to tropical regions with tropical regions showing a trend towards multivoltinism.
Courtship is often aerial and often involves pheromones. Butterflies then land on the ground or on a perch to mate.Copulation takes place tail-to-tail and may last from minutes to hours. Simple photoreceptor cells located at the genitals are important for this and other adult behaviours. The male passes a spermatophore to the female; to reduce sperm competition, he may cover her with his scent, or in some species such as the Apollos (Parnassius) plugs her genital opening to prevent her from mating again.
In the genera Colias, Erebia, Euchloe, and Parnassius, a small number of species are known that reproduce semi-parenthetically; when the female dies, a partially developed larva emerges from her abdomen.
Caterpillar Larva
Butterfly larvae, or caterpillars, consume plant leaves and spend practically all of their time searching for and eating food. Although most caterpillars are herbivorous, a few species are predators: Spalgis epius eats scale insects, while lycaenids such as Liphyra brassolis are myrmecophilous, eating ant larvae.
Some larvae, especially those of the Lycaenidae, form mutual associations with ants. They communicate with the ants using vibrations that are transmitted through the substrate as well as using chemical signals. The ants provide some degree of protection to these larvae and they in turn gather honeydew secretions. Large blue (Phengaris arion) caterpillars trick Myrmica ants into taking them back to the ant colony where they feed on the ant eggs and larvae in a parasitic relationship.Caterpillars mature through a series of developmental stages known as instars. Near the end of each stage, the larva undergoes a process called apolysis, mediated by the release of a series of neurohormones. During this phase, the cuticle, a tough outer layer made of a mixture of chitin and specialized proteins, is released from the softer epidermis beneath, and the epidermis begins to form a new cuticle. At the end of each instar, the larva moults, the old cuticle splits and the new cuticle expands, rapidly hardening and developing pigment. Development of butterfly wing patterns begins by the last larval instar.
Caterpillars have short antennae and several simple eyes. The mouthparts are adapted for chewing with powerful mandibles and a pair of maxillae, each with a segmented palp. Adjoining these is the labium-hypopharynx which houses a tubular spinneret which is able to extrude silk. Caterpillars such as those in the genus Calpodes (family Hesperiidae) have a specialized tracheal system on the 8th segment that function as a primitive lung. Butterfly caterpillars have three pairs of true legs on the thoracic segments and up to six pairs of prolegs arising from the abdominal segments. These prolegs have rings of tiny hooks called crochets that are engaged hydrostatically and help the caterpillar grip the substrate. The epidermis bears tufts of setae, the position and number of which help in identifying the species. There is also decoration in the form of hairs, wart-like protuberances, horn-like protuberances and spines. Internally, most of the body cavity is taken up by the gut, but there may also be large silk glands, and special glands which secrete distasteful or toxic substances. The developing wings are present in later stage instars and the gonads start development in the egg stage.
Thank you.
Comments
Post a Comment