How long butterflies live is a question whose answer depends on many factors and can vary greatly. The answer depends on the size of the butterfly, the species of butterfly, the environment in which it lives, and the time of year in which it became an adult.
How long does a butterfly live?
For example, if the size of the butterfly is reduced, it will probably not live that long, but if it is a larger butterfly, surely the insect will live longer. Now, of course, the size of the butterfly is not the only factor that influences the life of a butterfly.
There is an average lifespan of a butterfly, which is usually about 1 month. This is, although the smallest butterflies that can be seen sitting on the flowers in the garden live for about 1 week. The Mourning Cloaks, some tropical Heliconian and Monarch butterflies are some of the species that have an average lifespan of about nine months.
It is known that butterflies are cold-blooded creatures, so there is another factor to consider when talking about these frail and beautiful insects, the climate. For example, if the butterfly egg was laid just before cold weather, the egg will retain its shape until the weather warms up and as soon as this happens, the caterpillar will hatch and everything will start again.
If the butterfly is an adult and the weather starts to cool off while the creature has not migrated south, it will hibernate somewhere until the weather warms up. This means that a butterfly could technically live for several months after its average lifespan. It all depends only on the climate and the life stage of the butterflies when winter comes.
There is also a difference between insects that live in captivity and those in the wild. Butterflies in the wild are exposed to many predators, such as birds and other insects, so they may not be able to die “of old age”.
The life cycle phases of the butterfly
The life cycle of the butterfly begins when the female butterfly lays its eggs and ends with the death of the butterfly, which will happen, on average, after about 30 days. Butterflies are insects that we usually recognize by the striking colors and patterns of their spectacular wings.
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Most insect organisms have relatively complex life cycles that involve the transition between the four important phases: Egg, larva (caterpillar), pupal (chrysalis), and adult.
The life cycle phases of the butterfly
Butterfly metamorphosis is also known as complete metamorphosis or holometabolic metamorphosis and is characterized by the fact that young hatching from eggs are completely different from the adult stage, the opposite of what happens with incomplete metamorphosis, where offspring look like miniature adults. All insects with complete metamorphosis go through the 4 stages we talked about, egg, larva, pupal, and adult.
Egg phase
The life cycle of butterflies begins with a female laying her eggs somewhere, usually on the underside of leaves or on the stems of a plant. Eggs are generally very small and may have different textures, colors, and structures depending on the species.
The number of eggs laid by a female can range from a few hundred to thousands, which can all be together in a kind of “mass” covered with a fragment of the mother’s body, or can be widely dispersed between them.
The time it takes for the larvae to “come out” of the eggs varies greatly depending on the species, but it can last for several weeks or even full seasons, winter, spring, summer, and autumn.
Caterpillar or larva
After the time required for their development has passed and the environmental and physiological conditions are favorable, the caterpillars leave the eggs and discover the world of plants that surrounds them.
In zoology, the term “larva” is used to define the immature stages of any invertebrate animal, although some entomologists, zoologists dedicated to the study of insects, use it only to refer to young insects that in their life cycle pass later on to a pupal stage.
Pupa
When the larva or caterpillar fully matures, it becomes pupal and during this process, the entire internal anatomy of the caterpillar is “destroyed” and “built” again, which is rigorously controlled by various internal factors.
Pupae is the last phase of metamorphosis in holometabolic insects, and many experts state that the average time of the pupae stage, until the appearance of the adult, lasts several weeks. This can vary from species to species and even between generations of the same species.
If environmental conditions are not in their favor, some species can survive for more than two years until they “produce” other adults.
A pupa is a kind of “container” in which the surprising physical transformation from a caterpillar to a winged butterfly takes place. We can find pups suspended from tree branches or shrubs, in rolled leaves, or in burrows or underground holes.
It is a resting phase, during which the insect does not feed or significantly increase in size.
The shape and appearance of the pupae, as well as their structure, vary depending not only on the type of butterfly but also on the species.
Most of the pupa are covered by silk produced by the caterpillar stage and some species also include hairs of the cuticle of the larvae, chewed remnants of plant material, secretions or waste.
Adult
Adult individuals form during the pupal stage and can remain inside these structures as long as it is necessary, for environmental conditions to be appropriate. To hatch, many species of butterflies have special structures to cut them.
Once released, adults are able to hang their feet with their heads pointing toward the ground. In this way, they are able to push the body fluids toward the thoracic area, which, when contracted, allows blood to be pumped to the wings, which are not yet extended.
When the wings receive blood, they take on the size and shape of the wings of an adult butterfly, which can fly a few minutes after this happens, or it can take several hours.
Adult butterflies represent the reproductive phase in the life cycle of these beautiful insects. Due to their ability to move through the air, males and females meet to copulate and disperse in new places.
Adult butterflies feed mainly on nectar and other liquids found mainly on plants, which significantly contrasts with the feeding behavior of larvae, which eat leaves.
An adult butterfly can live up to a month, but that varies considerably depending on several factors, as I told you above.
Does a caterpillar look like a butterfly?
What is surprising about the process of complete metamorphosis in insects, and especially butterflies, is perhaps how different the egg, caterpillar and pupa are from the adult individual.
Therefore, the answer to this question is no, a caterpillar does not look like an adult butterfly:
The caterpillars do not have a suction device, but rather feed using a chewing device that smashes the leaves they feed on before digesting them.
Caterpillars don’t have wings, but butterflies do.
The caterpillars have 3 pairs of true legs and 5 pairs of “pro-legs” that they lose later.
The caterpillars have a hairy cover that protects them from potential predators, but this cuticle is thin and very flexible.
Caterpillars can shed the cuticle between 4 and 5 times during their growth and while in the pupa stage.
The caterpillars can grow up to 100 times their size compared to the size they had when they left the egg.
Butterflies remain as caterpillars for between 2 and 5 weeks. This phase of metamorphosis is one of the most delicate, as it is the one with the highest mortality rate, either due to environmental conditions or because they are preyed on by various predators.
It should also be noted that while they grow and move through the plants on which they feed, the caterpillars continuously produce threads, silk-like material, with which they adhere more easily to the surfaces.
Many caterpillars also use the silk they produce to “build” nests to protect themselves from environmental adversity or their predators.
What do butterflies feed on?
When it comes to butterflies, a lot of people don’t know exactly what these insects are eating. There are a lot of different sources of food for butterflies all over nature. For starters, the caterpillars eat only plant leaves. The leaves allow the caterpillars to grow and get all the necessary vitamins to turn into beautiful butterflies. In turn, adult butterflies consume all sorts of things, including nectar, water, and even liquids from some of the fruits we eat.
They especially like to eat slices of bananas, oranges, and watermelon. There are special foods for butterflies that can be bought. They are colored like a flower and come packed with special sugar that mixed with water becomes food for them.
Butterflies are known for their completely liquid diets, whether they take nectar from all sorts of flowers or use their long straw to drink water from shallow ponds.
The five butterfly families that are recognized in the Superfamily Papilionoidea, are:
- Family Papilionidae
- The Pieridae family
- Family Lycaenidae
- Riodinidae family
- Family Nymphalidae
Their predators are bats, frogs, small animals, and reptiles.
Facts
The world’s largest diurnal butterfly is the new Guinea Ornithoptera alexandrae butterfly. It has a wingspan of 32cm.
The Motley butterfly got its name from the English Lady Eleanor Glanville.
Butterflies have a GPS system in their antennas.
Butterflies taste with their feet.
There are butterflies that live only for one day.
Butterflies can be seen in paintings on Egyptian tombs and on medieval Chinese paintings, on silk, as well as on the canvas of modern artists.
