🦋 Get Out of Your Cocoon and Become a Beautiful Butterfly 🦋

A butterfly is a flying insect with a small body and large scaly wings. There are about 20,000 butterfly species. 

Like all insects, butterflies have six jointed legs, three body parts, a pair of antennae, compound eyes, and an exoskeleton.  The head, the thorax, and the abdomen are the three body parts. The body is covered by tiny sensory hairs. A butterfly has a long chambered heart that runs the length of its body.  

Butterflies have four separate transparent wings. All four wings move up and down in a figure-eight pattern during flight. Their wings are covered with thousands of tiny scales. These scales are arranged in colourful designs which are unique to each species. The colours you see when a butterfly flits across your yard are the reflection of the various colours through the scales. The wings themselves are made up of a protein called chitin and chitin is transparent.

Butterflies have a liquid diet.  They drink nectar found in flowers. Butterflies use their feet to taste.  The taste receptors on their feet help the butterfly locate the right plants and the key nutrients it needs for survival.  The average lifespan of an adult butterfly is about three to four weeks.  The entire life cycle of egg, larvae (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis) to adult butterflies can last anywhere between two and eight months. 

Butterflies are cold-blooded and require a body temperature of about 85 degrees to activate their flight muscles.  If the weather starts to change some species just migrate in search of sunshine.  The North American Monarch travels an average of 2,500 miles all the way from southern Canada to their wintering sites in the mountain forests of Mexico. This one of the longest insect migrations!  To travel this long distance, monarchs use a combination of air currents and thermals.

Breeding monarchs live two to five weeks.  Males have a black scent spot on a vein on each hind wing.  Females do not.  Females have more black scales along their wing veins. Females may lay several hundred eggs in their lifetime.  In average spring and summer temperatures, eggs hatch after about four to six days.

Monarch butterflies go through the four stages during one life cycle and through four generations in one year. Most monarch butterflies live for five weeks, except for the generation born at the end of the summer.  This generation will live up to eight months  as they fly back to their wintering grounds in South and Central America.  They stay until next spring. 

Butterflies are delicate and extraordinary insects that bring beauty to even the darkest places. Some people use the blue butterfly emoji to emphasize nature’s magnificence or to tell someone they are attractive.  

These are the sayings on the bookmark called Advice from a Butterfly.

• Let Your True Colours Show

• Take Yourself Lightly

• Look for the Sweetness in Life

• Get out of your cocoon

• Take Time to Smell the Flowers

• Catch the Breeze

• Treat Yourself like a Monarch 

Here are my comments about each of these sayings. 

• Let Your True Colours Show -To show your true colour is to reveal your real character or nature.  Don’t pretend to be someone you are not.  

• Take Yourself Lightly - Don’t take yourself so seriously. Be able to laugh at yourself. 

• Look for the Sweetness in Life - Find joy during difficult and trying times. 

• Get out of your cocoon - Step out of your comfort zone and be like caterpillars who emerge from their cocoons as beautiful butterflies.  

• Take Time to Smell the Flowers - Take time out of your busy schedule to enjoy the beauty of life.

• Catch the Breeze - A breeze is a gentle wind.  Slow down and catch your breath.

• Treat Yourself like a Monarch - Attend to yourself with exceptional care.  How you treat yourself is how you treat others.  Treat yourself well and then you can treat others as Kings or Queens too. 

Have a great day everyone.  Get out of your cocoon and become a beautiful butterfly.

# living life abundantly  # published author  # travelling tuesdays