Lato powoli rozkręca się na dobre, przyroda mieni się kolorami, upaja zmysły. To chyba najlepszy moment na artykuł Julii Daszkiewicz, naszej świeżo upieczonej absolwentki, o motylach. Czytamy po angielsku! 🙂
Butterflies – a metamorphosis from the other side
Close your eyes and imagine a butterfly. What do
you see? A colorful wide-winged creation or maybe
a dark leaky creature? Whatever it is, it is something
unique. And that’s the beauty of butterflies. But…have
you ever thought of how these animals exist in our
world, I bet you haven’t.
We are all aware of the mysterious metamorphosis from a worm to a butterfly, but we lack the knowledge about other aspects of their life.
Firstly, where do they live?
When you start to think deeply, you will realize that you only see them when it’s warm. And that’s a proper approach because most of them prefer to live in a bit higher temperature, but some of them are able to survive even in the arctic conditions.
What is most important for butterflies for living is a good temperature and abundant vegetation. They can survive in forests, jungles, savannahs, mountains or cities with parks or meadows.
Now we know where they live, so let us move on to what they eat.
They consume food through a narrow tubule on their head. They devour the nectar of the flowers. During their “dinner”, butterflies pollinate plants. Unusual is the fact that in the state of caterpillar or larvae they also consume their eggs. What is more, butterflies eat leaves, flowers, fruit and stems. Some butterflies, like Danaus plexippus, devour a specific tree called milk tree.
How long do butterflies live?
The length of their life is pretty diverse. The small ones can survive only up to 7 days, while the biggest ones are able to live even 10 months.
So let’s watch butterflies this summer.
Julia Daszkiewicz
