26 Butterfly Facts For Kids

1. Butterfly is the common name for a large group of flying insects who are members of the Rhopalocera suborder.
2. You can identify a butterfly by their commonly brightly colored wings and their erratic fluttering flight patterns.
3. When you ask someone to describe a butterfly, they will commonly describe the black and orange monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus).
4. The ancestors of modern-day butterflies were flying around our planet at least 200 million years ago.
5. There are around 18,500 species of butterflies living around the world.
6. Butterflies are found on every continent except for Antarctica.
7. Adult butterflies are typically herbivores and either eat nectar or there like some species which do not eat at all.
8. Caterpillars, the larva of adult butterflies, are sometimes carnivorous, or they can be completely herbivorous, it all variers by the butterfly species.
9. Butterfly species come in a huge variety of colors and sizes.
10. Some butterfly species are solid colors, while others have a wide array of brilliant colors.
11. An example of a near solid color butterfly species is the cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae) which is almost entirely white, with a little bit of black.
12. An example of a multi-colored butterfly species is the Cairns birdwing (Ornithoptera euphorion) with black, red, yellow, brown, and green colors.
13. Butterfly species can be as small as 0.5 inches or as big as 11 inches.
14. The smallest butterfly species in the world is the western pygmy blue (Brephidium exilis) with a wingspan of as little as 0.5 inches.
15. The largest butterfly species in the world is the Queen Alexandra’s birdwing (Ornithoptera alexandrae) with a wingspan up to 11 inches.
16. The average adult butterfly lives between 14 and 28 days but can vary greatly by species.
17. The average adult butterfly can fly between 20 and 30 miles.
18. A butterfly goes through four different stages in its lifetime.
19. The four stags of a butterfly’s life are egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult.
20. The egg stage starts when an adult butterfly lays eggs on a leaf or branch.
21. The larva stage (caterpillar) starts when it hatches from its egg.
22. The pupa stage (chrysalis) starts when the caterpillar is fully grown and ready for metamorphosis.
23. The adult stage starts when an adult butterfly emerges from the chrysalis.
24. Many butterflies migrate through the year, traveling with the seasons, sometimes going thousands of miles.
25. The monarch butterfly is known for their long migration routes, covering between 50 and 100 miles a day when migrating.
26. You can attract specific species of butterflies to your garden by planting the flowers they love the most.

Butterfly Pictures

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the below images will be helpful for your research on butterflies. Below are six pictures of various butterfly species. These pictures should help you better understand the different types of butterflies found around the world.

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