Butterfly
Pictures

Close-up of green spotted malachite butterfly.

Beautiful butterfly with wide multicolored red and yellow wings on a leaf in a tropical botanical garden near Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Butterfly sitting on a dandelion.

Beautiful butterfly sitting on a leaf.

Rows of butterfly cocoons and newly hatched butterfly.

Beautiful red butterfly isolated on white background

Viceroy Butterfly (Limenitis archippus) on vegetation in northern Illinois.

A Black Swallowtail Butterfly feeding on Zinnia flowers in the garden.

Mourning Cloak butterflies boast a stunning combination of colors and patterns.

One of the largest butterflies in the world, the birdwing butterfly can also be poisonous.

The common Indian crow butterfly expels a toxic liquid that causes its predators to vomit.

The atala butterfly is able to metabolize the toxic cycad plant, though its predators cannot.

Among other plants, the queen butterfly feeds on poisonous milkweed.

A butterfly ray blending in with the bottom of the ocean

Butterflies populations are essential to most ecosystems.

A Monarch butterfly rarely uses its forelegs.

Zebra Longwing Butterfly

Fun fact: Butterflies are found on every continent except Antarctica.

Fun fact: Butterflies can see red, green, and yellow.

Butterflies only fly during the day and rest their wings after dark.

Butterflies have various strategies for laying their eggs.

Butterfly eggs are unique to each species.

Monarch butterflies are beautiful, but they also happen to be one of the most poisonous insects.

How Many Eyes Do Butterflies Have

Butterfly with beautiful eyespots on its wings.

Butterflies know that the most vibrant blooms provide the sweetest nectar.

A close-up of the eyes of a green skipper butterfly from Dominicana through a microscope.

Zebra Longwing Butterfly drinking nectar

Raising Butterflies

A butterfly, Siproeta stelenes, feeding on oranges at the Butterfly House of Viagrande in Sicily.

The life cycle of color segeant butterfly ( Athyma nefte ) from caterpillar and pupa to butterfly.

Butterflies are found on every continent except Antarctica.

Swallowtail Butterfly

A butterfly's sense of taste is in its feet.

Dreaming of insects? Keep reading to learn about the spiritual meaning and interpretation behind such dreams!

As far as biologists know, the zebra longwing butterfly is one of the few butterflies that actually eat pollen.

Butterflies typically go into a dormant stage during the winter.

This peacock butterfly is enjoying the garden during the day; at night, it will become less active.

A Sleeping Butterfly at Dusk

When the Blue Morpho butterfly sleeps, it folds its wings to reveal a pattern that helps to ward off predators.

Rarest Butterflies in the World

Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly on green grass. They are thought to be one of the rarest species of butterflies found in the world because they are endemic to their very small range of habitat.

Butterflies are attracted to flowers that receive full sunlight.

A male Kaiser-i-Hind or Emperor of India Butterfly, Teinopalpus imperialis, sitting on a bright yellow flower.

One of the reasons the Schaus Swallowtail is unique is because it can stop suddenly in mid-air and fly backwards to avoid its predators.

Blue Morpho Butterfly, Morpho peleides. Their vivid, iridescent blue coloring is a result of the microscopic scales on the backs of their wings, which reflect light.

Butterfly Life Cycle

The life cycle of the butterfly is captivating. Here, we see three different stages of it.

What Do Butterflies Eat

A lime butterfly sipping nectar from a beautiful flower. Butterflies are cold-blooded and can't fly if their body temperature is less than 30 degrees Celsius.

Butterflies cannot poop because they only drink nectar.

Butterflies cannot poop because they only drink nectar.

Close-up of green spotted malachite butterfly

This eye-catching butterfly is also incredibly fast.

Harmless viceroy butterflies use Batesian mimicry to defend themselves against predators.

How Long Do Butterflies Live

Blue butterfly sitting on a beautiful flower. Butterflies don't have a mouth; instead they 'suck' food up with a kind of drinking-straw-like apparatus called a proboscis.

Chrysalis Butterfly hanging on a leaf. Inside the chrysalis, the pupa changes into an adult butterfly. This transformation can take a few days for some kinds of butterflies or up to a year for others!

Monarch butterfly egg (Danaus plexippus), New Jersey (1x.6mm). Butterflies glue their eggs to leaves. The egg would be destroyed if anything tried to remove them from the plant.

Beautiful close up view of the electric blue morpho butterfly in Costa Rica. Blue is actually an extremely rare color in nature.

Orange Albatross Butterfly sitting on a leaf. Butterflies, like the Orange Albatross Butterfly, use their feet to taste.

Smallest Butterflies

A tiny brown butterfly native to Arizona called the Western Pygmy-Blue. The blue coloring is only visible when its wings are spread open.

A rare Grizzled Skipper Butterfly (Pyrgus malvae) on a Cowslip flower. The grizzled skipper is a very scarce butterfly from the family Hesperiidae in Britain, but that is widespread throughout Europe.

Dorsal view of a male Common Sootywing butterfly resting on a blade of grass. To find receptive females, males patrol near the ground in sunny places; mating takes place in the morning and afternoon.

Adults of the Marine Blue butterflies are on wing from April to September in the north, and all year round in south.

Little Metalmark butterfly resting on dried grass, in the Pine Meadows Conservation Area Eustis, Florida

A Least Skipper is collecting nectar from a purple Thistle flower. The butterfly rarely gets higher than a couple feet above the ground as it slowly and somewhat choppily moves through vegetation.

A male Eastern Tailed-Blue perching on a mint flower in a garden, showing the tiny tail on its hindwings.

Queen Alexandra is the biggest butterfly with a wingspan on 11 inches.

Butterfly (Papilionoidea)

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Butterfly in Kampung Juara, Pulau Tioman

Butterfly, Kabil-Sepilok Forest Reserve

Butterfly, Kabil-Sepilok Forest Reserve

Butterfly at Jimmys Farm

Butterfly at Jimmys Farm

Butterfly at Jimmys Farm

Butterfly at Jimmys Farm

Peacock Butterfly, early spring

Small butterfly, Sepilok Rainforest Discovery Centre

Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock Butterfly

Monarch butterfly isolated on white background

Monarch butterfly on orange cosmos flowers

A monarch butterfly takes a well deserved break on the shores of Lake Superior in Minnesota on its northward return to Canada from Mexico.

Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and chrysalis cocoon

Monarch butterfly larva hanging on a leaf

Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, Michoacan, Mexico

Two Monarch butterflies and flowers in garden on bank of the Lake Ontario in Toronto, Canada