Are butterflies beneficial insects or pests?

1. Butterflies are pests in the larval stage because they eat plants; they are beneficial insects in the adult stage because they fly to...

Butterfly World

Butterflies have come, bringing the world a prosperous spring and autumn colors with abundant fruits. They spread their beautiful wings...flying freely like angels. No matter who they are, as long as they have a kind heart, they will appreciate the beautiful posture of butterflies and fall deeply in love with them.

Painters can get artistic inspiration from the beautiful appearance of butterflies.

Poets can find inspiration for their creations from the elegant expression of butterflies.

Philosophers can understand the philosophy of life from the active interest of butterflies.

Scientists can get research subjects from the peculiar habits of butterflies.

So, what do we get from beautiful butterflies? Next, let’s learn about butterflies!

1. Where do butterflies come from?

Butterflies and humans are both members of the animal kingdom, and both evolved from the lowest single-celled protozoa. Butterflies appeared 25 million years ago, while humans only came here 3 million years ago. Butterflies belong to the phylum Arthropoda, class Insecta, order Lepidoptera, and suborder Hammerhorn.

2. The difference between butterflies and moths

Butterflies and moths both belong to the order Lepidoptera, with more than 170,000 species in the world. Moths belong to the suborder Heterocera, and butterflies belong to the order Heterocera. Head.

Distinguishing characteristics of butterflies and moths

The shape of the antennae is enlarged at the top, hammer-shaped or rod-shaped, with thin tips, linear or feather-shaped

The wings are relatively wide and much larger Narrow

The abdomen is relatively thin and relatively fat and short

There are no connectors for the front and rear wings, but there are connectors for "wing reins"

When at rest, the four wings stand upright on the back. The upper four wings are laid flat or in the shape of a roof

Most of the time they are active during the day are at night

3. Although the butterfly is small, it has all the internal organs

The body of the butterfly is divided into heads There are three parts: , thorax and abdomen. The head has a pair of antennae, a pair of compound eyes and a mouthparts; the thorax has three pairs of legs and two pairs of wings; the abdomen has a midgut, crop, abdominal ganglia, rectum, anus, etc.

4. The Life of a Butterfly

"Butterfly, you were once a maggot", this is a famous saying of a Greek philosopher. It means that even a great hero or a peerless beauty has his or her naughty childhood. The life of a butterfly goes through four stages of change: egg - larva - pupa - adult, which is the complete metamorphosis of the insect.

Egg: spherical or semicircular, sometimes oval or flat. The egg is a cell that undergoes complex embryonic development and becomes an insect. It bites open the egg shell and hatches out.

Larva: It is a caterpillar that feeds on plants. It is roughly like a silkworm. It is the feeding and growth stage of butterflies. In the process of feeding and growing up, the larvae often shed their old skins and re-form new ones. The skin is peeled off so that the larvae are divided into instars, usually 4 to 5 instars, and finally peel off and pupate.

Pupa: The pupa is like a baby in swaddling clothes, roughly having the appearance of adult hair. When the larvae develop to maturity, they stop feeding and choose a suitable place to pupate. The pupation method varies depending on the species. For example, butterflies and silk butterflies often pupate in cocoons made of dead leaves and fine stones, which are called cocoons; swallowtail butterflies and white butterflies stick their ends to plants and wrap a thread around their waists to make the pupal body stand upright or obliquely. , called a constricted pupa; eye butterflies and nymphal butterflies often use hip spines and silk pads to hang their bodies upside down, which is called a hanging pupa. Although the pupa cannot feed, its body is undergoing thorough internal improvements, transforming the larval organs into adult organs. After the transformation is completed, it sheds its skin and emerges as an adult insect.

Adult: The adult is the final stage of butterfly development. The newly fledged butterfly has soft wings. After a period of time, the wing membranes and scales dry up, and then it spreads its wings and flies into the sky, beginning its colorful life. Soon they will mate, lay eggs, and start the next life cycle.

5. Butterfly, the enemy? Is it a friend?

Is the relationship between butterflies and humans harmful or beneficial?

1. Butterflies are pests in their larval stage because they eat plants; they are beneficial insects in their adult stage because they pollinate plants by flying.

2. In fact, there are not many species that cause material damage to humans, such as the rice butterfly and the rice-eye butterfly that harm rice, the cabbage butterfly that harms cruciferous vegetables (cabbage), and the jade belt butterfly that harms citrus. butterfly and citrus swallowtail butterfly, the camphor swallowtail butterfly that damages camphor trees, and the migratory pink butterfly that damages the iron knife tree.

The vast majority of butterflies are beneficial, such as spreading pollen for plants, maintaining ecological balance, and beautifying nature. If there were no butterflies and bees on the earth, there would be no gorgeous flowers, and the earth would be eclipsed. In addition, there are aphids that specialize in eating aphids, and there are other species that can be used for medicinal or edible purposes... 6. The wonderful wings of butterflies

Butterflies and moths have one thing that other insects do not have - scales on their wings. Thousands of tiny scales are delicately arranged on the wings and give the wings their color. The color symbols contained in the wings can help scare enemies or attract mates, and when in danger, the wings shine with bright colors to scare predators. The sources of butterfly wing color include: ① Pigment color is also called chemical color; ② Structural science is also called physics.

7. Utilization of butterfly colors

People have long appreciated the beautiful colors of butterflies, and are widely used as themes for paintings and embroidery. Modern art workers noticed that the natural coordination of colors is very harmonious, and used spectral analysis to find out the rules of color contrast as a reference for textile and clothing design. The glitter principle of butterfly scales is used to create glittering clothing.

Broken butterfly wings of specimens are also used as raw materials, and their different colors or patterns are used to compose Chinese paintings or paintings, becoming exquisite products in butterfly craftsmanship.

8. Butterfly’s defensive skills

During its lifetime, a butterfly will be attacked by predatory natural enemies such as swallows, birds, spiders, mantises, frogs, and dragonflies; in addition, it is also parasitic. Natural enemies, such as parasitic flies, parasitic wasps and parasitic fungi, etc. In order to escape predatory natural enemies, butterfly larvae or adults have protective colors or mimicry, imitating the branches, leaves of plants or the appearance of other poisonous butterflies. The famous example of mimicry is the dead leaf butterfly. When it is resting, the back of its wings looks like a dead leaf. The tip, petiole, and veins of this dead leaf are clearly visible. It is extremely difficult to find among the piles of dead leaves. There are also snake-eye-shaped markings or a special stink-horn odor to intimidate enemies. There are also some gray butterfly larvae that have a "roosting relationship" with aphids and ants. The ants lick the secretions of the butterfly larvae and are responsible for protecting them, expelling parasitic wasps, and moving the butterfly larvae into the ant nest for protection in winter.

9. Butterfly legends

1. The story of Zhouzhuang Dreaming of Butterfly 2. Mrs. Welding Ping’s nepotism turned into a butterfly 3. The story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai 4. Butterfly by the Butterfly Spring Meeting 5. The fate of the butterfly goddess 6. Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty releases butterflies 7. Mu Zong nets butterflies 8. The punishment of releasing butterflies

10. Butterflies in pictures

The earliest record of butterfly painting is "Chengzhai" Magazine": "Teng Wang Chen Ran is good at painting butterflies." The Forbidden City in Beijing is well preserved in the "Song Painting Album", in which there are only four pairs of butterflies, among which "Butterflies Playing in Sunny Spring" is the most famous. The other three are "Green Maple Giant Butterfly", "Chrysanthemum Flying Butterfly", "Begonia and Butterfly" is a modern work by Qi Baishi, Huang Binhong and others. Most of them are freehand works, but they are very vivid.

11. The world’s earliest butterfly stamp was issued by Sa Viet on January 3, 1950. The stamp is of the Red-necked Birdwing Butterfly (Papilion butterfly