“Butterflies are self propelled flowers.” ―
Do you love seeing butterflies in the summertime? I do. I’m always ready to yank out my phone and try to get it fired up and to the right screen fast enough to take a picture. Sometimes I succeed. Sometimes I simply take a picture of an empty flower. Butterflies are notorious escape artists when it comes to posing for pictures. So what is it about butterflies that we love? Their beauty, of course. But that beauty is in our eye and not the butterflies. The butterfly is busy floating this way and that and of course, escaping my camera lens. They have flowers to see and other butterflies to meet.
“Butterflies can’t see their wings. They can’t see how truly beautiful they are, but everyone else can. People are like that as well.” ―
Butterflies come in all sizes and many beautiful colors. They range in size from the tiny 1/8 inch ones to the huge ones that are almost 12 inches. Butterflies can see red, green and yellow. They love those red flowers. I do too. But then I like most all flowers. The butterflies love my zinnia and that’s where I’ve been able to grab some butterfly pictures and they also like my butterfly bushes.
There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly. -R. Buckminster Fuller
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. -Maya Angelou
We think about the caterpillars being the tough guys in the butterfly’s life. But caterpillars can be faced with all sorts of traumatic happenings. A bird might give the worm bait a try. Somebody might step on the caterpillar. A landowner might spray something nasty on the caterpillar’s sanctuary to keep it from eating all its store of food.
I wrote a book for young people years ago titled Only in Sunshine that had some butterfly facts, but not as many as I’m listing here. When we stop to think about butterflies they are amazing. I should have let Piper have a butterfly floating along through the woods with her as she traveled through those Appalachian Mountains in An Appalachian Summer. Maybe next story I’ll invite some butterflies to share the pages with my characters.
So here are some interesting butterfly (and more) facts for you to ponder. The one about the number of types of insects in a tropical rain forest tree amazes me. Nature can be a wonder.
~The top butterfly flight speed is 12 miles per hour. Some moths can fly 25 miles per hour!
~Monarch butterflies journey from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of about 2,000 miles, and return to the north again in the spring.
~Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.
~Representations of butterflies are seen in Egyptian frescoes at Thebes, which are 3,500 years old.
~Antarctica is the only continent on which no Lepidoptera have been found.
~There are about 24,000 species of butterflies. The moths are even more numerous: about 140,000 species of them were counted all over the world.
~The Brimstone butterfly (Gonepterix rhamni) has the longest lifetime of the adult butterflies: 9-10 months.
~Many butterflies can taste with their feet to find out whether the leaf they sit on is good to lay eggs on to be their caterpillars’ food or not.There are more types of insects in one tropical rain forest tree than there are in the entire state of Vermont.
~In 1958 Entomologist W.G. Bruce published a list of Arthropod references in the Bible. The most frequently named bugs from the Bible are: Locust: 24, Moth: 11, Grasshopper: 10, Scorpion: 10, Caterpillar: 9, and Bee: 4.
See even more butterfly facts at: http://www.thebutterflysite.com/facts.shtml#sthash.vgVN8dSj.dpuf
Just seeing a butterfly floating on the breeze or dancing between flowers can cheer up a day. May we always have a place in our world where butterflies can thrive. Thanks for reading.
Do you see butterflies where you live ? Which ones are your favorites to spot or see in pictures?
Comments 10
I love butterflies! I have several different kinds around here, but mostly little blue ones or white ones. Lately I’ve been seeing more dragonflies, though….swarms of them. I was told they eat mosquitos. And there’s certainly plenty of them around the lake this summer.
I can never seem to capture a picture of butterflies or dragonflies either. So I usually just stay still and admire them as they flutter around.
Your photos are stunning! That’s a really good phone camera, for sure! Thanks for sharing! 💐🦋
Author
I feel fortunate when I can get a butterfly or moth to sit still long enough for me to get a picture, Lavon. My phone does do a good job taking pictures and I like having a camera always available and not having to worry about taking too many pictures to use up all the film like in the old days. Take the pictures and delete what’s not good.
I too am seeing more dragonflies than usual back in the hayfield. Maybe it is because there are more mosquitoes to eat. I thought I’d done a post about dragonflies recently but don’t see it here. Maybe another post someday.
I love your article on butterflies. Thank you for sharing some facts that I didn’t even know. I have a very special place in my heart for butterflies. I love Richard Bach’s quote, “What the Caterpillar calls the End the Master calls a Butterfly.” The caterpillar can sometimes be not so pretty, but when the metamorphosis begins it changes into either a butterfly or a moth. It is definitely a miraculous event. I do see them here in Campbellsville. My favorites are the Monarch and the Swallowtails. ❤️
Author
That’s a neat quote, Eileen. I think people have always been captivated by butterflies. It’s so amazing how the caterpillar that is stuck so completely to the ground can become a fluttering beauty to ride the wind and take fuel from the sunshine.
I love watching butterflies. I like all kinds, they are like flying flowers!
Author
We do love butterflies, Connie. Those flying flowers that come from caterpillars that like to eat flowers. Nature is interesting.
I have seen a lot of Monarchs in my yard. I have also seen some black Swallowtails.
Author
I love seeing the Monarchs in the summer. Last year I saw many back in our hayfield, but haven’t seen as many so far this summer. The swallowtails are lovely too, Jacinda. I like spotting different butterflies, but I wouldn’t have thought there were so many varieties of butterflies.
I was just watching a blue and black butterfly with just a hint of gold at its tips, yesterday. I was grilling supper and it would sit for a minute on our porch near me and then fly around again. It is peaceful to watch them. They are so delicate but strong at the same time. Just another example of all of the beautiful things that God has created. 🙂
Author
Indeed, Hope. And when they linger around us like that, while it may just be some fragrance we’re wearing or in my case while I’m walking, some sweaty smell 🙂 that attracts them, it still feels like a special gift.