Butterflies

These colourful butterflies from South America, Central America and Asia were caught in the early 1900s when catching butterflies was a very popular hobby.  This can be shown by the number of specialist books, butterfly farms and dealers trading in specimens and equipment that were in existence during this period.  Many famous people collected butterflies including Winston Churchill and even Sir David Attenborough in his younger years.
 
Today there is much more emphasis on conservation - in 2019 a UN panel on biodiversity showed that 1 million species were threatened with extinction most of which were insects including butterflies.  There are 20,000 species of butterflies in the world but the greatest risk is loss of habitat.





 

Did you know the following interesting facts about butterflies?
 
***Butterfly wings are transparent underneath thousands of scales which reflect light in different colours
***Butterflies taste with their feet! A female butterfly will land on a plant and drum the leaves with her feet until the plant releases juice.  When she finds the right plant she will lay her eggs.
***Butterflies can only eat liquids which is usually nectar.  They have a tongue known as a ‘proboscis’ which acts like a drinking straw and stays curled up under the butterflies chin until it finds a meal