butterfly

Also known as butterflies, butterflys

OverviewAI-generated

Butterflies are a taxon known as Papilionoformes. The subject is categorized under the Commons category "Butterflies" and has an associated Commons gallery titled "Butterfly." The Unicode character for the subject is 🦋. In OpenStreetMap, the tag "zoo=butterfly" is used.

The subject appears in PubMed with a count of 12722 for the query "butterfly." Additionally, the Vinony graph indicates that the subject is referenced by 11,008 other encyclopedia articles.

Synthesized by Vinony from 8 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, PubMed, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Research

12,722 papers

Eco-evo-devo advances with butterfly eyespots.ReviewCurrent opinion in genetics & development · 2021Beldade P, Monteiro ADOI: 10.1016/j.gde.2020.12.011
Monarch butterfly-breeding habitat restoration: how movement ecology research can inform best practices for site selection.ReviewCurrent opinion in insect science · 2023Fisher KE, Bradbury SPDOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2023.101108
Butterfly populations flutter bye.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2025Inouye BDDOI: 10.1126/science.adw1633
Role of herbicides in the decline of butterfly population and diversity.ReviewJournal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology · 2023Mallick B, Rana S, Ghosh TSDOI: 10.1002/jez.2688
How butterfly wings got their pattern.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2022Espeland M, Podsiadlowski LDOI: 10.1126/science.ade5689
Butterfly eyespots exhibit unique patterns of open chromatin.F1000Research · 2023Murugesan SN, Monteiro ADOI: 10.12688/f1000research.133789.1
New molecular insights into butterfly pigmentation.Cell reports · 2023Kronforst MR, Sheikh SIDOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112981
A multicontinental dataset of butterfly thermal physiological traits.Scientific data · 2024Diamond SE, da Silva CRB, Medina-Báez OADOI: 10.1038/s41597-024-04191-2

via PubMed

~39 min read

Encyclopedic overview

28 sections

Contents

Etymology
Paleontology
Taxonomy and phylogeny
Biology
General description
Distribution and migration
Life cycle
Eggs
Caterpillar larva
Pupa
Adult
Pattern formation
Mating
Behaviour
Ecology
Parasitoids, predators, and pathogens
Endangered species
Defences
Declining numbers
In culture
In art and literature
In mythology and folklore
Collecting, recording, and rearing
In technology
References
Further reading
External links
Regional lists

Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterised by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossils have been dated to the Paleocene, about 56 million years ago, though molecular evidence suggests that they likely originated in the Cretaceous.

Butterflies have a four-stage life cycle, and like other holometabolous insects they undergo complete metamorphosis. Winged adults lay eggs on plant foliage on which their larvae, known as caterpillars, will feed. The caterpillars grow, sometimes very rapidly, and when fully developed, pupate in a chrysalis. When metamorphosis is complete, the pupal skin splits, the adult insect climbs out, expands its wings to dry, and flies off.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “butterfly” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.