Butterfly

A few words to begin

Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterised by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossils have been dated to the Paleocene, about 56 million years ago, though molecular evidence suggests that they likely originated in the Cretaceous. As holometabolous insects, butterflies undergo complete metamorphosis, meaning that their life cycle comprises four stages. Winged adults lay eggs on plant foliage on which their larvae, known as caterpillars, will feed. The caterpillars grow, sometimes very rapidly, and when fully developed, pupate in a chrysalis. When metamorphosis is complete, the pupal skin splits, the adult insect climbs out, expands its wings to dry, and flies off. Some butterflies, especially in the tropics, have several generations in a year, while others have a single generation, and a few in cold locations may take several years to pass through their entire life cycle. Butterflies are often polymorphic, and many species make use of camouflage, mimicry, and aposematism to evade their predators. Phaeism is when a butterfly doesn't fully undergo melanism. Some, like the monarch and the painted lady, migrate over long distances. Many butterflies are attacked by parasites or parasitoids, including wasps, protozoans, flies, and ot…