Beautiful Butterflies
By Fatima Akhtar
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Butterflies are flying insects. Butterflies are found in all parts of the world except the polar regions. There are about 150,000 kinds of butterflies in the world.
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Butterflies have a head, thorax, abdomen, six legs and two antennae. Most butterflies have four wings The wings of butterflies are covered with tiny scales and some of them are brightly colored, others have bold patterns or scary eyespots.
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Butterflies start off as eggs laid by the female on a leaf. The plant that the butterfly lays eggs is called a host plant. Butterflies lay upto 500 eggs at a time.
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Caterpillars hatch out of the butterfly eggs. They are tiny worm like creatures, who eat and grow big.Caterpillars eat leaves using their strong mandibles. A caterpillar's first meal is its own eggshell. Some caterpillars are meat eaters.
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Soon, the caterpillar becomes a pupa or chrysalis. This is the resting and transforming stage of a butterfly. Inside a marvelous transformation from a caterpillar to an adult takes place.
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After completely transforming into an adult the insect emerges from the chrysalis, which is a hard shell.
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An adult butterfly or moth comes out of the chrysalis. First, the chrysalis splits open. Then, the limp, damp butterfly crawls out with eyes, a proboscis for feeding, and six legs. Next, the wings expand and blood is pumped into them. After warming up in the sun, the insect can fly off and lay its own eggs.
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Butteflies live all over the world, and all types of places. They are found in hot, cold, dry, moist, places and even high in the mountains. Most butterfly species live in tropical areas, like tropical rainforests.
Butterflies also migrate to avoid bad weather conditions.
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Butterflies can only sip liquid food using a tube-like proboscis. The proboscis uncoils to sip food, and coils again when not in use.
Most butterflies live off of the nectar from flowers. Some even sip liquid from rotting fruits and few prefer sipping rotting animal flesh.
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Around the world, there are around 28,000 butterfly species. Butteflies are fascinating insects, which many people study about. These people are called Lepidoterists.
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