The Language of Butterflies

“Butterflies unite us across generations and across space and across time. They are elemental. A butterfly is an entire universe, right there in the palm of your hand.”

I've been participating in a citizen science project this spring and summer about butterflies, and I wanted to know more.

And, so, this book.

What did I learn?

Butterflies belong to the second-largest insect order, Lepidoptera, with 180,000 known species. Of that, 14,500 are butterflies. The rest are moths.

What's the difference between moths and butterflies? The frenulum, that hooks together the forewing and hind wing on moths, which moves them together, and it is (generally) absent in butterflies.

What do moths and butterflies have in common? Proboscises, “fantastical appendages that are not noses and are not used to take in oxygen and are not used to sniff things out.” It is the proboscis with which moths and butterflies search for food.

How about this fact? “The list of materials other than nectar on which Lepidoptera feed is stupefying, myth-busting, slightly nauseating, even frighteningly ghoulish: dung, decaying plant material, bird droppings, fruit both fresh and rotted, crushed pollen, blood, decaying flesh, other Lepidoptera (preferably dead but not necessarily so), caterpillars, sap, human sweat, urine, beeswax, honey, fur.”

When I got to the chapters on monarchs, I found myself underlining everything, page after page. It's completely fascinating, but if you want to know about that, you'd best read the book for yourself.