How many butterflies in the world

Plant associations. Butterflies are commonly associated with plants, and the relationship is sometimes complex. Immatures, with few exceptions, eat plants, and therefore may be considered harmful to the plants. However, butterflies are very important to many plants that are dependent upon flower-visiting insects for cross-pollination. Most butterfly caterpillars eat one, or sometimes several, related species of plants.

Usually the choice is made by the adult female when depositing eggs. Adults usually feed on nectar from flowers of plants, although many butterflies feed instead on rotting fruit, dung, etc. Butterfly migration is best exemplified by the Monarch, which is widely known to migrate in the fall to overwintering sites in California and Mexico. But in the United States, several other butterfly species engage in lesser migration distances.

Wing colors in butterflies appear in two types, pigment and structural, frequently combined in one individual. Pigment colors are familiar in paints, dyes, and inks, and are defined as specific substances with definite chemical composition. Structural colors are instead produced in a physical manner, similar to a rainbow. Morpho butterflies are the usual example of butterflies with structural color.

The vision of butterflies appears to be excellent, especially within short distances. They are able to fly with precision in areas of many obstacles. Mating Behavior. Females are usually able to engage in mating on the day of emergence, but males do not normally mate for several days.

Courtship rituals vary widely among species. Butterflies are currently, with some arguments, placed into the following six families:. Known as "Skippers," containing relatively small, fast-flying species. About 3, worldwide species. Blues, Hairstreaks and Coppers. Colors and patterns of sexes often differ. Over 5, world species. Known as "Brush-footed" butterflies, contains many subfamilies.

There are some 5, worldwide species. Known as "Swallowtail, butterflies, most species have prominent "tails. With a growing evidence base of dramatic declines in insects, a thorough assessment of the status of key butterfly groups is long overdue.

There are currently very few butterfly or moth assessments on the IUCN Red List 1, species as of May , of which are more than ten years old and considered out of date and our priority is to rectify this situation. This group of around species was previously comprehensively assessed in , with some reassessments in The current reassessment is around one third complete and will be fully published in Other priority groups for assessment are the milkweed butterflies and North American prairie butterflies with our partners at Albuquerque BioPark and Minnesota Zoo.

The Sampled Red List Index provides a way of including butterflies in global biodiversity indicators. For most species these northward dispersals are gradual, but, in especially good years, one can see Painted Ladies, Cloudless Sulphurs or Clouded Skippers streaming northward along migratory routes. For some species the reverse migration, south in the fall, is more obvious.

Cloudless Sulphurs, Mourning Cloaks, Question Marks, and especially Queens and Monarchs can sometimes be found moving southward in groups of thousands. Exactly where all of these butterflies go is not known. Monarchs are the most well-known of migratory butterflies. But even here our knowledge is limited. We know that most of the Monarchs from west of the Rocky Mountains spend the winter along the California coast while those from central North America spend the winter in roosts in the mountains of central Mexico.

But what about the Monarchs from the Atlantic seaboard? On the other hand, perhaps northern Monarchs that enter the peninsula don't survive the winter and, for them, Florida is a dead end. Some Monarchs do seem to overwinter in Florida, but these may be largely members of resident, non-migratory, populations.

At this point, we just don't know. Where do butterflies lay their eggs? Most butterflies lay their eggs on plants that will be eaten by the caterpillar, when it hatches.

Some species lay their eggs on the tops of leafs, some on the bottom, some at the leaf axils, some on flowers, and some on stalks. Which species do which is not known in all cases. Watch butterflies carefully and you could make a real contribution to our knowledge. What is wrong with releasing butterflies at weddings and other events? This well-meaning but misguided practice spreads diseases to natural populations, inappropriately mixes genetically distinct populations of the same species, may disrupt migratory behavior of native butterflies, confuses scientific studies of butterfly migrations, and usually results in the untimely death of the butterflies released.

Please see Butterflies at Weddings for more about this subject. I bought my child a Painted Lady kit, now the butterfly has emerged but it is still freezing outside. What should I do? The best thing to do at this point is to keep the butterfly inside in a small enclosure. Try feeding it from a sponge impregnated with sugar-water.

But, the important thing to remember for the future is not to buy butterflies. Releasing commercially-raised butterflies into the environment is well-meaning, but misguided see above , while keeping the wild butterfly in your home is not a satisfying experience for most people not to mention the butterfly. Far better to take your child out to any natural area and search for wild butterflies and caterpillars, which are easily found in most areas.

Do butterflies have a sense of smell?