* * * * Fun Butterfly and Moth Facts * * * *
- The fastest butterfly can fly 12 miles per hour. Some moths can fly 25 miles per hour.
- Some moths never eat anything as adults because they don't even have mouths. They must live on the
energy they stored when they were eating leaves as caterpillars.
- Butterflies can taste their food with their feet.
- Moths and butterflies smell with their antennae.
- Many people around the world (Africa, Australia, Asia, the Middle East and South America) actually
eat bugs because they are rich in protein, vitamins, minerals and fats.
- Most insects are beneficial to people because they eat other insects, pollinate crops, are food for other
animals, have medicinal uses and make products that we use, like honey and silk.
- The smallest butterfly, the Pygmy Blue in the southern USA, is only a half inch wide.
- The largest butterfly, the Queen Alexandra's Birdwing in the rain forest of New Guinea, is almost 12
inches wide. Wow, that's as big as a bird.
- Caterpillars that over-winter produce glycerol in their body, a kind of natural antifreeze.
- The Painted Lady butterfly is the most wide-spread butterfly in the world.
- Once a butterfly emerges from its chrysalis it never grows any larger. Only the caterpillar grows.
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