Curious misconceptions about butterflies

The word "butterfly" has a rather interesting history. Our ancestors, admiring the flight of these insects, suggested that it was the soul of the deceased ancestor, the soul of the grandmother, fluttering around the house. So this insect was called "butterfly", which originally meant "grandmother's soul".

Many believe that they are all pests. However, in reality, the vast majority of them are useful. To pests can be attributed, and with a big stretch, only a few of those butterflies that fly in our area. Even the notorious cabbage can be useful, although gardeners are not happy about its appearance. They are not particularly happy with the situation when they see caterpillars on cabbage leaves. But entomologists note that cabbage helps to fertilize cabbage flowers. For this plant pays a kind of "tribute" to the butterfly.

Curious misconceptions about butterflies

Cabbage | wikipedia.org

Curious misconceptions about butterflies

Cabbage (male) | wikipedia.org

Curious misconceptions about butterflies

Cabbage (female) | wikipedia.org

You can often hear that butterflies live only one day. In fact, some of their detachments live for many months, overwintering or flying to distant warm lands. There are butterflies that make even intercontinental travel, while overcoming enormous distances. For example, the burdock flies from Europe to Africa, where it dies, but after it has laid its eggs. And her "kids" go to Europe next year. Travelers are whites, and monarchs, and some hawks.

Interesting fact

In autumn, monarchs from all over North America fly south, flying more than 3000 kilometers. They winter in Mexico, Florida, Southern California, Cuba and the Bahamas.

Curious misconceptions about butterflies

Burdock (dorsal side) | wikimedia.org

Curious misconceptions about butterflies

Burdock (abdominal side) | wikimedia.org

Curious misconceptions about butterflies

Whites | wikimedia.org

Curious misconceptions about butterflies

Danaida monarch (left – male, right – female) | wikimedia.org, wikimedia.org

Curious misconceptions about butterflies

Moth hawks | wikimedia.org

Butterflies usually appear to us as tiny fragile creatures. But there are giants among them too. A butterfly such as Queen Victoria's Ornithoptera (Ornithoptera victoriae) has a wingspan of up to 30 centimeters (larger than many birds). And in the 80s of the 20th century in Vietnam, entomologists discovered a giant butterfly with a wingspan of up to 40 centimeters.

Interesting fact

The first specimen of a butterfly of the Queen Victoria Ornithopter species, a female, was described in 1856. Because of the fast and swift flight, she had to be shot from a gun with small shot. Males are less common – the first was caught only in 1887. As a rule, the wingspan of males of this species is up to 16 cm, females – up to 20 cm.

Curious misconceptions about butterflies

Ornithoptera victoriae (male) | wikimedia.org

Curious misconceptions about butterflies

Ornithoptera victoriae (female) | wikimedia.org

One of the most famous in our country are hawthorn butterflies. And although these insects have a very inexpressive white color, there are often so many of them that it is difficult not to notice the hawthorn. This butterfly, with its unusual property, has long evoked fear and surprise in people.

About once every 20 years there is a massive flight of the hawthorn, and then the ground under the trees is covered with "bloody" spots. In the past, people thought it was a sign of bad luck. And as a rule, next year the orchards suffered from crop failure.

But there is no mysticism here. The fact is that before taking off, a drop of meconium is released from the abdomen of a hawthorn – a dye that is very similar to blood (the body of a butterfly does not need it, and therefore it is removed in this way). As for the sign, the mass departure also meant the mass laying of larvae, and, consequently, the appearance next spring of a huge number of caterpillars that ate leaves and flowers on trees. That is why gardens remained barren.

Curious misconceptions about butterflies

Hawthorn | wikimedia.org

Curious misconceptions about butterflies

Hawthorn | wikipedia.org

There were other superstitions associated with butterflies in antiquity. So, the Indians believed that if you whisper your cherished desire to the little beauty and release it, she will deliver him directly to God, and the dream will certainly come true. And in ancient Rome, they believed that butterflies came from flowers that had come off plants.

Currently, scientists have described more than 158 thousand Lepidoptera. It is assumed that up to 100 thousand species are still unknown to science and, thus, the total number of butterfly species existing on the planet can be estimated at approximately 200-225 thousand species.

For 200 years, butterflies have been scientifically studied, but until now, researchers cannot say that they have finally figured out what determines the bizarreness of their color. The main discoveries in this field of entomology are yet to come.