The Butterfly

Butterflies live in different habitats. This is a tiger swallowtail butterfly. It can be found in cool, rainy areas where there are trees that lose their leaves in fall and regrow them in spring. It can also be found in cities.

A butterfly starts its life as an egg. The female Tiger Swallowtail butterfly lays its yellow-green eggs on a leaf high in a wild black cherry or birch tree.

When the caterpillar hatches, its first meal is its egg shell. Then the caterpillar eats lots and lots of leaves from the tree where it hatched. Then it turns into a pupa (chrysalis). This is a resting stage. As the body changes into a butterfly, it will not eat or drink. A beautiful, flying butterfly appears.

It will not grow anymore but the butterfly will sip nectar from flowers. This butterfly loves pink, purple and red flowers the most!

These butterflies also need a little water. Rainwater in a puddle is enough to make butterflies gather together for a little drink.

Caterpillars are soft bodied and slow moving. This makes them easy prey for predators, like birds, wasps, and mammals to mention just a few. The caterpillar is camouflaged to look like bird droppings when it is very young. Now what predator would want to eat bird droppings? Yuck! Later, it gets eyespots, which make it look like a snake, scaring off some predators. The caterpillars have horn-like things on their heads that give a nasty smell when the caterpillar is disturbed.

Butterflies are weak and almost defenseless animals. Birds, spiders, snakes, wasps, and other animals will eat them.

Look again at this butterfly's tail. Some animals get confused and think that this is the head! These predators think those two tail parts are antennae and those spots are eyes. When the predator grabs the tail, the butterfly flies off. He may be missing a part of his tail, but he got away safely!

Flying is another way the butterfly protects itself. This butterfly is a strong and fast flyer that can often be seen flying at the top of trees. They do need lots of sunshine to give them energy needed for flying. A nice flat stone will give them a place to bask in the sun so they can get warm.

Butterflies hide when it rains. They usually go to the same places they do for the night. Some butterflies hide under large leaves, some crawl down into dense leaves or under rocks, and some just sit head down on grass stems or bushes with wings held tightly closed. If the rains are too hard or last a long time, many of the butterflies become tattered or die.