Wild Wednesday's: Butterflies | More than Flutterbies

in #nature6 years ago (edited)

Hello Steemian Friends!

Hope you are all well and having a good day so far! We (Sam and Becca) are both very well, although a bit tired from working but we are not complaining!

Butterfly!! A Leopard Lacewing resting

Welcome to Wild Wednesday's! I know it's been a while since our last proper Wild Wednesday's post. Last week we were on our last day of the juicing plan and wanted to share our experiences about that first so we did not post our usual Wild Wednesday entry. Anyway, today we are back to normal. This week Becca would like to share a little bit about her fascination for anything wild and beautiful, especially when it comes to the amazing Flutterbies. Of course I (Becca) mean Butterflies!

I am trying so hard to remember the name of this little beauty, but I can't and I don't want to say in case I am wrong. But isn't he/she a beauty?!

Butterflies are more than just an insect with big colourful bright wings that you often see fluttering around your garden and in the fields. Each individual butterfly species has its own set of skills that help it survive and thrive. Of course I didn't grow up knowing about the details of all butterflies. While I was working in Cambodia I was trained in the butterfly life cycles at the Butterfly Centre I was helping with, and I took on a whole new appreciation and fascination about these beautiful flying insects. When I was little, it was very common at school to have your own shoe box filled with silk worms and we would trade our thinner ones for the bigger ones and we knew exactly what leaves to feed them with - Mulberry leaves. It would never eat lettuce or other types of green leaves.

Another Leopard Lacewing, little posers. Look at the details in it's wings! Wow!!

Did you know each Butterfly species has its own food plant?

A Yellow Archduke, resting on the side of the stream

The food plant is where the adult female butterfly will lay her eggs (if not on it she will lay them near it), and it is where the caterpillars will hatch and begin to eat the food plant leaves straight away. For example, the Lime Butterfly, Papilio demoleus malayanus, will only feed on citrus plant species such as the lime and lemon. If you have a lime or lemon tree, or any other citrus plant in your garden go and check the leaves in case you see the Lime Butterfly caterpillars munching away and watch the changes its body goes through over the course of 5-10 days.

A moment captured. These guys were and are the most photogenic Butterfly species I have encountered - the Leopard Lacewing

Did you know that a Butterfly caterpillar goes through 5 growth spurts - called Instas - throughout its lifecycle?

I didn't know that either until I learned about at work. The caterpillar's body goes through several changes as it grows, in colour as well as in shape and size. These changes occur in Instas, in every Insta the caterpillar sheds its own skin and continues to outgrow it until the next Insta. It stops growing once it reaches the end of its fifth Insta which is when it will form a pupae and emerge as a beautiful butterfly! It really is fascinating if you think about! From caterpillar - a long, colourful larva - into a butterfly - a flying insect with big, colourful, beautiful wings. In the space of DAYS!

A pair of mating Leopard Lacewings. The female adult butterfly is the lighter coloured one

Did you know the complete life cycle of a butterfly is roughly 14 days from hatching to death?! And about 7 days of that is spent as a caterpillar.

A Tailed Jay, check out the green colours against the dark background!

Stay Classy Steemians!


Wild Wednesday’s is a post written by the @travelling-two every Wednesday to inform their followers and readers about nature and conservation.

Thank you for taking the time to read our post. If you really like our content, please follow us as we post regularly with different topics from Monday to Friday (with some exceptions at the weekends). How about your followers? Would they like this post? If so, please resteem it! Finally, if you are generous, please give us an Upvote! We thank you in advance! Lots of love / @travelling-two

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I loved the educational nature of this post travelling-two. I learned so much about butterfly which I was unaware off and your photography is just stunning. Thanks for sharing :-)

Thanks @raj808! It's just one of our many passions. We see and appreciate the love for this post. Butterflies are underrated and you'll be amazed to know that butterfly farming is quite a big business. Certain species can only grow in certain areas, so if an exotic butterfly is in demand, there could be big bucks for it - every 2 weeks (due to the lifecycle).

Thank the butterflies as we wouldn't have these stunning photos without them! 😄

i love butterflies! they're so sweet thanks for sharing. Keep up the awesome work

Thanks @melissakellie! Just sharing our knowledge and what we love! Great to see that it's appreciated by many! 😊

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