butterfly: Quick Facts

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The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

Nov. 13, 2026

News •

A butterfly that fooled scientists for 200 years finally reveals its secrets • Nov. 12, 2026, 5:49 AM ET (Science Daily)

Monarch butterflies get tiny trackers to help scientists follow their mysterious migration • Nov. 3, 2026, 11:17 AM ET (AP)

Facts

Also Known As	Papilionoidea

Photos and Videos

Lime butterfly (Papilio demoleus) with black, white, and yellow patterned wings feeds on a cluster of small orange flowers.

A butterfly hangs from its chrysalis as it emerges, with several brown chrysalises lined up on a wooden beam in a butterfly house at the Natural History Museum in London.

Close-up of several tiny, spiky, newly hatched leopard lacewing caterpillars and a few round, mature eggs on a green leaf.

citrus swallowtail butterfly

Great Mormon butterfly

milkweed butterfly

A blue morpho butterfly, Morpho peleides, rests with wings open on broad green leaves in dense tropical vegetation.

Orange-tip butterfly (Anthocharis cardamines), with long proboscis for feeding.

Palaechrysophanus hippothoe butterfly with iridescent orange and purple wings perched on a green leaf.

Vintage illustrations of colorful moths.

Behold the multitude of Amazonian arthropods including spiders, scorpions, beetles, and mantids

What can bionics researchers learn from butterflies and moths?

Observe a monarch butterfly coming out of its chrysalis

Monarch Butterfly Migration Explained

See All Videos, Images and Interactives →

Topics

Riodinidae American moth-butterfly snout butterfly Papilionidae Pieridae brush-footed butterfly How Do Butterflies Migrate?What’s the difference between moths and butterflies?gossamer-winged butterfly metalmark heteropteran Coleoptera ant grasshopper wasp bee skipper fly social insect apterygote

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Sea otter (Enhydra lutris), also called great sea otter, rare, completely marine otter of the northern Pacific, usually found in kelp beds. Floats on back. Looks like sea otter laughing. saltwater otters

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wasp. Vespid Wasp (Vespidaea) with antennas and compound eyes drink nectar from a cherry. Hornets largest eusocial wasps, stinging insect in the order Hymenoptera, related to bees. Pollination

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Mute swan with cygnet. (birds)

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Green tree python snake (Chondropython viridis) in a rainforest.

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