There are amazing butterflies in the world - mayflies. This order includes more than 3,000 species of insects. In each of them, a one-day butterfly lives no more than a day, during which it manages to be born, leave offspring and die.
And their appearance is somewhat non-standard. A distinctive feature of most butterflies are light translucent wings and 2-3 long tail filaments.
Mayflies do not need to be distracted by searching for food. They simply do not have a normal mouth opening, and their digestive organs are filled with air.
Typically, the process of degeneration of a larva into a butterfly occurs simultaneously for many hundreds of insects. And they all go on their first flight together, where they split into pairs.
From a distance, the mating games of ephemerals look like a swarm of flying multi-colored snow over the water; up close, they look like a dance. First, the females flutter upward, hover for a few seconds (at the same time the males fly up to them) and smoothly glide downwards, then all elements of the dance are repeated again.
The purpose of the males after the “dance” is fulfilled. Most of them die right in the air and fall into the water to the delight of the fish, the rest will last another hour or two.
Female mayflies scatter across the territory of a river or lake to lay eggs. And by evening, their life also ends. One butterfly lays about 10,000 eggs. But out of this huge number, no more than a tenth of the total offspring is born. Most eggs and larvae are eaten by fish.
By the way, experienced fishermen who know about such gastronomic preferences of fish get good catches using mayfly larvae as bait. The offspring of mayflies differ from other inhabitants of the reservoir by the presence of ready-made tail filaments and tracheal gills
The larvae themselves, unlike the butterflies, are nothing remarkable. They are extremely voracious, grow actively and can molt about twenty times during their larval life. At the same time, they live for 2-3 years, as if in compensation for the short life of adults.
When the time comes to transform into a butterfly, so many gases accumulate inside the mayfly larva that the outer shell swells, floats and cracks. And the newborn butterfly clings to the remains of the shell and dries out.
Then the last molt of the insect occurs. The skin on the back of the day-old is torn and the butterfly flies up to perform its first and last dance. Mayflies are the only order of insects in which externally formed butterflies with wings can molt.
Despite the fact that mayfly offspring are left completely unattended, their number and distribution do not decrease. So far, these amazing insects have not been found only in the Hawaiian Islands and St. Helena Island.
Butterfly habitats
In fact, butterflies are distributed throughout the world and live on every continent except Antarctica. They are physically unable to withstand the eternal cold, and in addition to this, there are no plants on the glaciers that could serve them as food.
And yet, scientists were able to find out the location of the largest number of butterfly species - these are the territories of India, its environs and the forests of South Asia. Their habitat primarily depends on climatic conditions. These insects love warmth and humidity, so their accumulation in most cases depends on these two factors.
They are most often found in flowering meadows, fields and forests, because there, not including the cold seasons, it is almost always warm and there is a sufficient number of plants that act as food.
Night and day species of butterflies
Nocturnal butterflies differ from day butterflies in very few ways. The main difference is that during rest, the night butterfly folds its wings, but the day butterfly does not. Also, the color of the day butterfly is brighter. Its coloring includes blue, red, yellow, and other colors. While most of the moths are gray-black.
Therefore, there is no such criterion as night or day butterflies. Mostly people say this to simplify explanations about who they saw during the day or at night.
What does the Mayfly breathe?
Some species of mayflies (Baetis) dive under water for the same purpose and lay eggs on the lower surface of the stone. During this operation, they breathe air underwater, which they take with them when diving. After laying their eggs, female mayflies also die.
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What affects the lifespan of a butterfly?
The lifespan of a butterfly is influenced by many factors.
How long do butterflies live: size
In general, smaller butterflies do not live as long as larger ones.
How long do butterflies live: types
Some species are able to live longer than others. For example, monarch butterflies often live for several months because they migrate to warmer climates.
How long do butterflies live: temperature
Butterflies are cold-blooded, so their lifespan is also affected by the ambient temperature. Tropical and migratory butterflies tend to live longer because they spend more time in favorable climates. Additionally, if butterfly eggs are laid in cold weather, they will remain as eggs until warmer weather arrives.
How long do butterflies live: captivity
As mentioned earlier, butterflies that live in the wild often have a much shorter lifespan because they are exposed to nature. The wild contains predators such as birds and larger insects, and factors such as sudden temperature changes or changes in habitat can dramatically shorten a butterfly's lifespan.
Although butterflies living in captivity have a relatively short lifespan, they will almost always far outlive their natural lifespan. This is because they have access to abundant nutrients in the form of caterpillars, a safe environment for pupae, and a controlled, predator-free environment as adults.
Lifestyle of a butterfly
Butterflies are very fragile. During their short life, they must have time to lay eggs, so they try to defend themselves in various available ways.
Some butterflies are difficult to spot due to their coloring. They blend into the surrounding nature and if you don’t look closely, you can pass by.
There are butterflies that protect themselves with poisonous wings. Judging by their colors, one can often assume that they are poisonous and should not be touched. This is done to protect against birds, because even if a bird eats one butterfly, this will not happen again next time. After eating poisonous butterflies, birds begin to vomit and their heart may stop. But at the same time, poisonous butterflies are very beautiful.
What do butterflies eat?
As we all know, in the past the butterfly was a caterpillar and at this stage of its life cycle it is forced to absorb a large amount of food. It can serve as food from cabbage and ordinary leaves, grass, as well as seeds and fruits of plants.
But in doing so, they greatly spoil the quality of fruits and vegetables, interfere with the sowing process and the development of plantings. In the body of a butterfly, the insect does much less harm. After all, all she needs for food is flower nectar. The butterfly has a proboscis, which increases depending on the structure of the flower and thanks to it, it has the opportunity to suck nectar from the plant.
Not every flower is edible, and in order to test the plant for its ability to play the role of food, the insect probes it with its paws, on which there are receptors that determine the edibility of the plant, and after this process is completed, the butterfly, depending on the result, straightens its proboscis.
What kind of life do mayflies lead?
Burrowing forms lead
secretive
lifestyle
, they are difficult to detect.
The clayey banks of rivers are indented with burrows of larvae. Aquatic invertebrates often crawl into them and become prey for predatory mayflies
.
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Interesting facts about butterflies
No matter how impossible it may seem, butterflies can be kept at home. In special stores you can buy so-called domestic butterflies. They are not difficult to care for, but there are many factors to consider.
In nature, a rather rare species of red butterflies. The most famous representative is the peacock butterfly. There are many butterflies with red spots, for example on a black background, but there are few red butterflies.
As mentioned above, butterfly wings consist of small scales. You can see this only in special photos from magnifying devices. Also, all these scales are covered with pollen and if you take the butterfly by the wings, it will no longer be able to fly.
