Where Do Butterflies Live?

It lightens the heart of young and old to take a walk through a meadow or field, listen to the birds, and watch the colorful butterflies as they flit from here to there on an aimless path. They float on the air currents and stop to smell all the flowers. Their lazy wanderings seem to simplify life in the hectic world.

Butterflies can be found everywhere around the world.  There are only a few places in the world where there are no butterflies and that is due to the climate and the lack of food sources for the butterfly. Extremely cold environments are very difficult on butterflies because they are cold-blooded insects.  This means Antarctica and the Arctic are not regions where you will find butterflies. Virtually every country in the world however, has butterflies during some part of the year. Answering the question of where do butterflies live is also interesting because butterflies migrate, just as do birds do, to warmer climates as winter approaches.

After the winter has begun to wane, they return to the area they left. This means that whether or not you will find butterflies at a given time of year depends on how warm the climate is in the area where you are.

Butterly Species

There are over 18,000 different species of butterflies. They come in tiny and very large sizes with wings in many colors and patterns. The monarch butterfly is one of the best known butterflies, with its distinct black and orange colored wing pattern.

Butterfly Life Cycle

Butterflies have a very simple life that consists of only four stages. They begin as eggs that grow to become caterpillars. Then the caterpillars enclose themselves into a pupa or chrysalis to give birth to the butterfly. The only thing left in their life is to reproduce to continue the species.

The butterfly hunts for the right place to lay her eggs. She searches for the leaves of the type of plant the caterpillar will eat when it hatches. She then lays her batch of eggs on the top of the leaves of this plant. Different butterfly species require different types of plants for their caterpillars to grow on.

Since the caterpillar has no means of leaving the birth plant, the eggs must be laid on the correct plant. Once the caterpillar hatches from the egg, it begins to eat. The caterpillar is a single track minded eating machine. It will consume the leaf that it was laid upon first and then move on to the next leaf on the plant. The caterpillar will continue eating until its exoskeleton has grown to the length needed to form the butterfly that is to come.

Since the exoskeleton doesn’t actually grow, the caterpillar goes through a series of molting stages as the body lengthens and changes. Once it reaches the length required, the caterpillar forms a pupa or chrysalis around its body and begins the wondrous process of metamorphosis. Their body is changed and redesigned within the pupa, replacing appendages with wings and the body into the exoskeleton of a butterfly. Once the butterfly has been formed, it breaks free of the chrysalis and rests. After three or four hours of rest, the butterfly expands its wings and pumps blood into them to get them moving. The butterfly takes a few hours to master the ability to fly but soon it has the capability to float on the air currents and fly to where ever it desires.

The final stage of the butterfly’s life is to reproduce. As the butterfly wanders from plant to plant feeding, it is always on the look out for a likely place to lay its eggs. Once it finds the right type of plant it lays its eggs just as the previous generation did. After this, the cycle of life begins again.The butterflies form an important and even vital role in the pollination of trees and plants. As they fly from flower to flower consuming the nectar for energy, the butterfly also picks up pollen on its body and carries it with them to the next flower they visit. By this action, the butterfly helps to pollinate trees and plants in the area.