In winter, heat-loving birds fly to the south, beetles hide in the bark, and animals that have actively equipped their wintering place all autumn take refuge in them from snow and cold. Butterflies cannot do any of the above. Are they really dying?
Instructions
Step 1
Some of the butterflies do die, but not because they could not hide from the cold. The thing is that individuals such as urticaria or lemongrass have adapted to live next to humans. And therefore, with the onset of the first frost, they go to human houses, where they are hammered into cracks and go into hibernation, suspended animation. Most of these insects successfully overwinter and wake up in the spring. However, when the temperature rises in the dwelling, the butterfly's early awakening mechanism is triggered, the insect wakes up and flies out of the shelter into the frost, where it dies.
Step 2
Before falling asleep, butterflies perform a curious ritual, which was only observed by researchers. Butterflies dance in the air along an eight-fold trajectory for about an hour, after which they take a position on the edge of the winter house and tightly envelop, hug their own little body with wings. The head is the last to hide in such a cocoon and the insect falls asleep.
Step 3
In general, suspended animation in butterflies is no less unique than that of other insects. Life processes slow down so much that vital activity actually ceases, while some species (as a rule, large-winged ones) manage to lay eggs in this state.
Step 4
Butterflies like hawk moths hibernate in warm and humid rooms, they die just not from frost, but from the drying out of the winter house. Some butterflies spend winters in the bark of trees or in moss, mostly these are species that lay eggs in early spring, such butterflies can be seen already in March, when there is still snow. The odorous woodworm hibernates in the soil, loves, for example, compost heaps. The main danger to its pupae is mice and other insects, which eat their congeners in winter.
Step 5
Surprisingly, there is a whole squad of butterflies that migrate like birds. To warm lands. This unique phenomenon is a mystery to researchers, because it is still believed that butterflies have a very primitive nervous organization, and they simply cannot have memory or the ability to macroorientation.
