Fast facts about butterflies

• A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera.
• Butterflies can see green, red, and yellow.
• Butterfly larvae, or caterpillars, consume plant leaves and spend practically all of their time in search of food.
• Some butterflies have evolved symbiotic and parasitic relationships with social insects such as ants.
• The top butterfly flight speed is 12 mph. Some moths can fly 25 mph!
• Culturally, butterflies are a popular motif in the visual and literary arts.
• Monarch butterflies journey from the Great Lakes to Mexico, a distance of about 2,000 miles, and return to the north again in the spring.
• Butterflies in their adult stage can live from a week to nearly a year depending on the species.
• Representations of butterflies are seen in Egyptian frescoes at Thebes, which are 3,500 years old.
• Many butterflies can taste with their feet to find out whether the leaf they sit on is good to lay eggs on to be their caterpillars' food or not.
• Butterflies have their skeletons on the outside of their bodies, called the exoskeleton.
• The Ancient Greek word for "butterfly" is ψυχή (psȳchē), which primarily means "soul", "mind".
• One Japanese superstition says that if a butterfly enters your guestroom and perches behind the bamboo screen, the person whom you most love is coming to see you.
• In Chinese culture two butterflies flying together are a symbol of love.
• The idiom "butterflies in the stomach" is used to describe a state of nervousness.