Image by Eco Heathen via Flickr

Butterflies as you know are beautiful and delightful creatures. But did you know some incredible facts about these ‘nature’s angels’ like… …

• A caterpillar grows to about 27,000 times the size it was when it first hatched out of its egg.
• A full grown butterfly can be as tiny as 1/8^th of an inch or even a gigantic 12 inches.

• A butterfly’s wings are actually transparent. It’s their iridescent scales which overlap one another that give a butterfly its color.

• Butterflies might be well over 3500 years old, for Egyptian frescoes at the Thebes show representations of butterflies.

• There are about 24, 000 identified species of butterflies.

• The top speed that butterflies can fly is 12 miles an hour.

• It’s a myth that the butterfly or caterpillar spins a cocoon. Actually, the growing caterpillar sheds its skin at least 5 times – through a process called molting; because unlike the human skin, their skin doesn’t expand or stretch to accommodate the body and therefore it must shed it and grow a new one – and once they shed their last skin a pupa is revealed, the outer surface of which hardens and forms the chrysalis which protects the caterpillar as they transform inside into a butterfly.

• Butterflies need a body temperature of at least 86 degrees to fly.

• Butterflies can see red, yellow and green colors.

• Because butterflies need a very warm body temperature to take flights, which is more or less deficit in Antarctica, it’s the only continent where you won’t find a butterfly. As a matter of fact you won’t even find moths there.

• The longest lifespan of an adult butterfly is that of the Brimstone Butterfly. 9-10 months.

• A butterfly’s skeleton is on the outside of its body – exoskeleton. This protects it and keeps water inside its body so it doesn’t dry out.

• Butterflies have six legs and feet. The taste sensors are located in the feet which explain why the butterfly must stand on its food to taste it.