Butterfly Colors

The butterfly's wings are like a fly's wings but the wing on a butterfly has scales. (see photograph) . The scales give the wing its color. (see photograph) If the wings didn't have scales, the wing would be translucent. If that was true, we wouldn't be so interested in tthem because they would be like a giant fly!

Close-up of the wing of a butterfly
showing the scales which give color to the wings.

Some butterflies are poisonous. They show that they are poisonous by having the colors: orange, red, white, and black. They also fly slower than non-poisonous butterflies. Butterfly wings sometimes have designs such as the alphabet (only about 1 letter) or an eye. The eye is for scaring predators when it sits. The letter is just a design in the colors, there is no special reason for it.

Feeding

Butterflies like to eat shrubs such as Autumn Olive and Privets. They also like wild flowers, which happen to be Milkweed and Verbena. They also like Daisies and Marigolds, which can be found in regular gardens.

Adult butterflies are attracted to red, yellow, orange, pink or even a light purple. The flower has to be flat topped and must have small flower tubes, so the butterflies can fit through and reach the nectar. (see photograph) The nectar plants should be grown in sunny areas because they aimost never eat in shade.

The Snowtail caterpillar eats only native prickly ash. The Red Spotted Purple caterpillar eats all sorts of deciduous trees.

Extra Information

There are more than 700 species of butterflies in North America. Click on the image to see a chart of some of them.

The adult butterfly can have a wing span of up to 10 inches e.g. the giant female Queen Alexandra's Birdwing. (see photograph)