Wings of a butterfly - a beautiful mystery of nature

It so happened that the insects in our societyrelate mostly negatively. Some have spiders or even cockroaches as pets, and in certain regions of the planet they eat them, but mostly they cause disgust and other negative emotions in people. The only exceptions were butterflies, which, although considered to be insects, but the attitude in society towards them is the opposite: they are admired, admired and even used as natural flowers.

Representatives of the order Lepidoptera not only delight others with their appearance, they play a crucial role in the life of plants - they pollinate them. People are mostly attracted Butterfly wings with their beauty and bizarre patterns, and yet among more than 200 thousand species of these insects, not all are as harmless and beautiful as is commonly believed.

Among these lovely creatures there are also pests.(for example, cabbage moth or fruit moth), and even vampires (some types of night-scoop). Contrary to the well-established view that the wings of a butterfly should be large and beautiful, some species are wingless in general (for example, some free women or small wings). The order of Lepidoptera is very diverse, its representatives sometimes do not resemble each other, neither externally, nor habitat, nor food preferences.

Returning to the butterflies in the classic sense(those that feed on nectar and have large variegated wings), it should be noted that they, like many other insects, look like this only at the last stage of their development. The life of lepidoptera begins with eggs, which the female lays in a secluded place. It can be overgrown with grass, foliage of trees, the bottom of a reservoir (and it happens) or a cupboard in the kitchen (some types of moth produce offspring in food).

After some time, the larvae appear,which are also called caterpillars. In most cases, they are the pests (except for blood-sucking species). In the process of growth and development, the caterpillars are capable of destroying products ten times more than their own volume, and if there are thousands and tens of thousands of them, then they are able to eat entire fields, being a kind of natural disaster. Ultimately, the larva becomes a pupa (in some species, this stage of development is absent), and only then - a butterfly.

The last stage of development of Lepidoptera lastsnot for long. Some species from the moment when the first flap of a butterfly's wings occurs and have time to die for literally several hours (they are called “ephemerals”). At the same time at the larva stage, they can live for several years. The structure of a one-day butterfly does not provide for the digestive system - they feed only after being caterpillars, “matured”, leave offspring in the form of eggs and die.

Some countries have entire parks and gardens, wherethese beautiful insects, fed by humans, fly freely among the flowers and trees, delighting visitors with their fancy patterns. Looking at the wings of a butterfly, which, slowly shaking them, sits on a flower, it is hard to believe that she is the closest relative of the cabbage soup destroying the crop. But it really is.

These creatures are sometimes so beautiful that humansready to watch for hours, with bated breath, for how they fly from flower to flower, but sometimes they are disgusting and bloodthirsty. It so happened that for some, the wings of the butterfly are associated with a beautiful flower-like pattern, while for others they cause only indignation because of the loss of the harvest. This, apparently, is the main mystery of the nature of Lepidoptera.