------Program code: NS-080716-03139 (what's this?)
Source: CCTV.com
07-16-2008 10:58
This small creature is struggling to start a new life. It has inspired many writers and poets.. It’s so beautiful that it’s almost like a dream. It’s a butterfly.
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The butterfly's life is like a dream. It is called a flying flower. It is an elegant, beautiful angel. We have long studied and observed its habits. More than 2,000 years ago, a renowned Chinese essay called "Zhuang Zi" described the butterfly. The great scientific work, “Biological Evolution”, describes the evolution of butterflies. In history, both writers and scientists eulogized its beauty.
Modern science and technology have also provided us a key to further unlocking the mysteries of the butterflies. Different species of butterflies have different wing lengths. Some species have wings over 10 centimeters long. They can fly and glide in the air like birds.
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Some don’t look like butterflies. Some have delicate feathered wings and look like fans.
Butterflies and moths are ancient insects. Their ancestors once hovered around dinosaurs millions of years ago. Over the past 50 million years, their appearance has changed little. Most butterflies’ and moths’ heads are covered with dome-shaped compound eyes, which are made up of thousands of hexagonal shaped omatidea . Nevertheless, compared with mammals, butterflies have poor eyesight, but they are extremely adept at distinguishing the nuances of color. Oleander hawkmoths rely on their eyesight to search for food. They’re able to identify flowers of different colors.
Butterflies look for food in the daytime, but moths look for food at night. Many butterflies stretch their needle-like mouthparts to nectar from fruits. Some species of butterflies can use their compound eyes to identify the right flowers and stretch their mouthparts to siphon nectar in pistils or fruits. These types of butterflies live only on liquid food. Their mouthparts are very narrow, long tubes having two parallel grooves each. They can even use their mouthparts to get to the nectar in hard tropical fruits.
Insects, such as butterflies, use techniques completely different from us to perceive the world, and their sensory organs are located on the top of their tentacles. They use their tentacles to sense their surroundings.
A butterfly’s body is wrapped with hard, short villi. Its wings are covered with scale-like spots. Its gorgeous color comes from natural pigments in the spots. The pigments can sometimes emit colorful light, making the butterfly even more beautiful.
There are exceptions. Tropical clearwing moths almost have no scale-like spots on their wings. Their wings are completely transparent. This provides effective camouflage, which is especially important for such weak insects. From the aspects of their appearance and living habits, the butterfly and the moth are somewhat similar. But they have one important difference: Butterflies move in the day, while moths move at night. Moths may cause trouble at night.
For example, at night, moths often slip into houses from the openings in doors or windows to steal yogurt.
Even worse, moths bite us while we’re sleeping and can suck our blood. Their bites can transmit diseases. But butterflies could never do this.
The rising sun is a symbol of new hope. Butterflies move in the day. They are seen in a more positive light. Some butterflies are named after gods. For example, the Apollo Butterfly is named after the god of brightness and beauty in Greek mythology. It is characterized with shining circular spots on its wings. This Apollo butterfly is shaking its wings to warm up before flying off.
Before flying, Apollo butterflies must get their body temperatures up to 30 degrees Celsius. Many of them live at mountain regions over 2,000 meters above sea level. Butterflies begin to work busily since the first thread of morning sunlight sets in.
The Junonia almanac constantly looks for nectars. The swallow tail (Papilio machaon) works even harder. It lands on every flower for a few seconds and then quickly flies to another one.
A few species of butterflies have special tastes. They are interested in dead animals. For example, the Purple Monarch Butterfly likes sucking sap from dead animals, because it contains salt needed for its metabolism. For several millions of years, butterflies and moths across the world have evolved to survive in nature.
Being mixed with dry leaves has made Kallima inachis survive many catastrophes. It’s very surprising to find so many patterns and designs that look like English letters or Arabic numerals on the butterfly’s wings. These patterns have two functions: One is camouflage, and the other is intimidation. Colorful circular designs on the wings look like a ferocious animal’s eyes. This scares away potential predators. Look, this butterfly’s wings have 4 eye-like designs.
In the early summer, butterflies and moths in the forest display their special defense ability. Tomtits are insect-catching masters in the forest. They are busy catching insects for their babies. Although this moth is close to the trunk, it is still hard to escape from a hungry tomtit’s sharp eyes. The tomtit observes this moth from every angle, but the moth doesn’t seem to flee. This looks somewhat strange. Finally, the bird pecks at it cautiously. The moth quickly opens up its wings. The reddish eye-like designs on its wings frighten the tomtit. The moth then shakes rhythmically to imitate an animal’s head. This is quite effective as the tomtit leaves.
Mantises often stay on tree branches to wait for the arrival of insects. A mantis is now watching a butterfly who is drinking water nearby. It then catches and eats the butterfly. Eating and being eaten are common phenomena in nature. Mantises even eat toxic butterflies. Soon, the butterfly is eaten up by the mantis, and only its beautiful wings are left behind.
Large flowers in the tropical rain forests attract many birds, such as hummingbirds. A variety of butterflies hover, play or fight around flowers and the waterside. However, even their short stays on trees or land can attract predators. Tree frogs like sunbathing. They have an alarming appetite and can eat anything. They can quickly jump up and catch rapidly moving prey.
Butterfly is bitten and swallowed by a tree frog in just seconds. Despite having a large number of natural enemies, butterflies rely on their fecundity to reproduce generation after generation. In some parts of the world, the same species of butterflies gather together in an enormous number. Every summer, on the island of Rhodes in Greece, millions of butterflies gather in a valley, where there is a wet climate, abundant sunshine, and lush vegetation.
Freshwater crabs live in the clear water in the valley. They are omnivorous amphibious animals and eat whatever they can find. They often look for food on the shore. Butterflies fly close to the water surface from time to time and use their tentacles to touch the water surface. They often become the crabs’ prey. There is no other place in the world where crabs can be seen catching butterflies.
When the summer is over, millions of butterflies will fly together into the dark sky to escape from land predators.
Editor:Yang
