CONTEST! Choices! What will it be?

_{Designed using Pixellab App Butterfly clipart}

Hello friends, as a lover of nature for today's Choices contest, I would go for Butterfly. A butterfly certainly adds beauty you our mother nature. Therefore, I choose the word butterfly. @patjewell I am grateful for giving me this chance to write about this incredible creature.

Butterflies are captivating animals that are beloved by multitudes all over the world for their differences. Butterflies are known for their vibrant colours and intricate designs, earning them a prevalent place even in art and literature.

_{Image of butterflies Source; Pexels}

Nonetheless, butterflies are much more than merely pretty insects – like every other living creature, they play a crucial ecological function as pollinators and a source of nutrition for higher animals.

FEATURES OF BUTTERFLIES

A butterfly’s body is generally divided into three parts, the head, thorax, and abdomen. It has six legs with three on each side and two pairs of large wings.

With their colourful wings attached to the thorax part and their body covered with tiny sensory hairs. Butterflies do have a great sense of smell accompanied by their compound eyes.

_{Image of a Butterfly Source; Pexels}

Butterflies are effortlessly recognized by their colourful wings, coated in microscopic scales that mirror light to produce a shimmering effect. They also come with long, thin antennae like that of ants which they also use to sense their surroundings and a snoot, with a straw-like feature they use to suck flowers nectar.

Butterflies come in thousands of different species around the world, with each having its distinctive features. For instance, the Monarch butterfly is known for its long migration ability usually from Canada to Mexico annually, while the Blue Morpho butterfly is known for its brilliant blue wings.

All butterflies are incredible fliers, but their speed varies with the species they belong to, and there are butterflies all around the globe as they thrive in all kinds of habitats: hot, cold, dry, moist, etc. Nevertheless, they are most abundantly found in tropical areas.

LIFE CYCLE OF BUTTERFLIES

_{Life cycle of a Butterfly Image source; PNGwings}

Butterflies live through four stages of development in a complete lifecycle, these are;
• Egg Stage,
• Larva,
• Pupa, and
• Adult.

The life span for each phase differs depending on the species of butterfly and the environmental conditions available to it. The egg stage usually lasts a few days to several weeks, riding on the temperature and humidity levels of the environment.

_{The Caterpillar of a Butterfly Source; Pexels}

The Larva stage begins immediately after the eggs hatch. At this stage, the butterfly larvae, ( also known as Caterpillars) feed on leaves and grow as fast as they can.

The pupa begins once the Larva or Caterpillar has eaten enough leaves and reached its full size. This phase is when it undergoes a metamorphosis. It is inside the pupa, that the caterpillar transforms into the beautiful butterfly we see. Then, the adult butterfly finally emerges from the pupa, and the cycle begins again.

_{Pupa of a Butterfly Source; Pexels}

It is quite amazing how everyone seems to hate the Caterpillar but loves the Butterfly.

IMPORTANCE OF BUTTERFLIES TO NATURE

Butterflies are vital pollinators, which means they help in transferring pollen grains from one flower to another, helping these plants to yield fruit and seeds which other animals feed on. Therefore, Without these pollinators such as butterflies, a considerable number of the foods we eat, ranging from fruits, vegetables, and nuts, wouldn't be readily available and would have been much harder to grow.

Butterflies likewise serve as a source of nutrition for other animals, such as birds, bats, and insects.

Asides from their ecological importance, butterflies have maintained a vital role in human culture over time gaining prominence in art, literature, and mythology from around the world. For Instance, Japanese culture depicts butterflies as a symbol of the soul, whereas in Greek folklore, the goddess Psyche is depicted with the wings of a butterfly.

CONCLUSION

Butterflies are more than mere adorable insects, they are not just beautiful as they also make us happy. Yet, the butterfly populace around the world is under threat, and in severe decline. I hope we can help save and maintain the ecological balance and conserve the cultural importance of these beautiful creatures by learning more about them and making efforts to protect their populations.

THANK YOU!

I like to invite the following users @yakspeace, @ruthjoe and @petface

---

Thank you all for always making out time to go through my work, and I only hope you enjoyed it😉😁. I can never say thank you enough. You are my real MVPs.

---

---

NOTE: Always have a smile on your face, as you are never fully dressed without one.