Butterfly 🦋

Winged insects with large, often brightly coloured wings, around 18,500 species in all. Each starts as a caterpillar, pupates in a chrysalis, and emerges as an adult that sips nectar through a long, coiled proboscis.

Quick answers

What is it?Insect

Carnivore?No, herbivore

Dangerous?No

Domesticated?No

Awake when?Daytime

Hibernates?No

Kept as a pet?No

Do people eat it?No

At a glance

Found inWorldwide

HabitatGrassland, Forest, Rainforest

ColoursOrange, Blue, Black, White

SizeTiny

Legs6

Covered inScales

Lives alone

Lives for2–11 months

Can fly

Lays eggs

In the wild

Where it lives

Worldwide except Antarctica.

What it eats

Adults sip nectar from flowers. Caterpillars eat the leaves of the plants their eggs were laid on.

Did you know

Tastes with its feet.

Some, like the monarch and the painted lady, migrate over long distances.

Often confused with

• 🦋Moth

  Butterflies fly by day, have clubbed antennae and rest with wings held upright. Most moths fly at night, have feathery or tapering antennae, and rest with wings flat.

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Butterfly

Last reviewed 28 September 2026