Butterflies and moths (rama-rama) are insects belonging to the order Lepidoptera, or 'winged insects' scales (lepis, scales and pterons, wings).
Simply put, butterflies are distinguished from moths aka night butterflies based on their active time and physical characteristics. Butterflies are generally active during the day (diurnal), while moths are mostly active at night (nocturnal). The butterfly rests or rests with its wings up, the moth rests with its wings spread. Butterflies usually have a brilliantly beautiful color, moths tend to be dark, dull or gray. However, these differences are always exceptions, so it can not be scientifically fixed. (van Mastrigt and Rosariyanto, 2005).
Butterflies and moths are very numerous, on the island of Java and Bali Island alone recorded more than 600 species of butterfly. The type of moth has so far not been made a complete list, but it is suspected that there are hundreds of species (Whitten et al., 1999). Butterflies become one of the few types of insects that are not harmful to humans.
Butterfly species there are about 20,000 species!
There are about 20,000 species of butterflies scattered around the world. In Indonesia there are about 2500 species of butterflies, slightly adrift of Brazil that has a diversity of about 3000 species of butterflies. This makes Indonesia become one of the paradise for butterfly lover.
The wings are transparent
Butterflies are admired for the beauty of its wings are diverse. We need to know if the butterfly's wings are actually transparent. The wings of butterflies are formed from a set of layers called chitin. Chitin forms a wing frame and a thin layer of wings. Furthermore, this transparent surface will be covered by thousands of small scales. These scales form the color pattern on the butterfly wings, especially when exposed to the reflection of sunlight.
Patterns on the wings are also useful when the butterfly will mate. Various patterns are useful to attract the attention of the couple.
In general, butterflies lay their eggs in different parts of the plant such as leaves, stems, and others.
Some butterfly species, such as Lady Painted, are known to fly migrating thousands of kilometers during the winter.
Butterflies are found all over the world except in the Antarctic continent.
Butterflies can not fly if their body temperature is less than 30 ° C.
As a cold-blooded animal, butterflies need to keep warm.