Subject: First grader's questions

From: crigler <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 19:30:34 -0700

This may not be the usual type of post on this newsgroup, but I thought 
you might be able to help me.  I am teaching a unit on butterflies, or 
rather trying to teach, but first graders always have a way of asking 
what you are not ready for.  Can anyone help with these questions, I have 
found a couple of different answers in the old reference books in our 
library.
1.  What is the largest butterfly, and where is it found?
2.  What is the smallest butterfly, and where is it found?
3.  Do any butterflies eat meat?
4.  Is there any color that never appears on butterflies?
(They do think os some questions!)
Any e-mail to [email-masked] would be greatly appreciated.
If you have any strange butterfly facts that would interest them, that 
would be great  (the stranger, the better!)
Thank you so much, in advance,
A grateful teacher,
Cyndi

---

From: "Boyce A. Drummond" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1996 16:39:37 EDT

Cyndi wrote:

"This may not be the usual type of post on this newsgroup, but I thought
Cyndi"

Hi Cyndi:

Here are some answers to your questions, plus a brief review (to be published in
the NEWS of the Lepidopterists' Society later this year) of a reference you
might find useful.  Just published by Gary Ross, it is available from him at the
address given below.  It should answer many of your questions and give you lots
more interesting facts to share with your students.

1. The birdwing butterflies, _Ornithoptera_,  _Troides_, and _Trogonoptera_, are
considered the largest butterflies.  They range from India throughout the
Australasian region, with wingspans of females reaching 9-11 inches and those of
males reaching 5-7 inches.    Queen Alexandra's birdwing (_Ornithoptera
alexandrae_) fom the island of New Guinea is often cited as the largest species.

2. The genus _Brephidium_, known as the pygmy blues or dwarf blues, are among
the smallest butterflies in the world.  There are three species, one in Africa
and two in the U.S.   _Brephidium exilis_, ranging from the western U.S. to
Guatemala, has a wingspan of 3/8 to 3/4 of an inch and is generally considered
the smallest butterfly species.

3. Butterfly adults do not have chewing mouthparts and thus are incapable of
eating meat.  However, several species imbibe liquid secretions of carrion,
attracted by the amino acids and the salts available from rotting flesh.

4.  Great question, but I don't know the answer.  All the primary colors occur
in butterflies, along with many intermediates.  Given that my computer can
produce 16,000,000 colors (I have to believe Bill Gates on that) on its screen,
surely there must be some shades that butterflies don't produce, but determining
the exact hues seems to me to be nigh impossible.  Butterfly wing colors are due
entirely to the color of their scales.  Scale colors originate from 4 pigment
classes (melanins, ommochromes, pterins, and flavonoids), although some species
also produce bile pigments and other pigments whose origin is as yet unknown.
Butterflies can synthesize all pigments but flavonoids, which are widespread
among plants but do not occur naturally in any animal (butterflies must obtain
flavonoids from their foodplants).   In addition to pigment colors there are
structural colors, produced when light interacts with regularly spaced physical
structures in the scales on the wings.

Good luck with your first graders!

Boyce

Boyce Drummond
Natural Perspectives
[email-masked]

EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT BUTTERFLIES: 100+ QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
BY GARY NOEL ROSS, PH.D., by Gary Noel Ross. 1995. Published and distributed by
the author, 6095 Stratford Avenue, Baton Rouge, LA 70808. 52 pp., color cover,
numerous text figures and diagrams.  Softcover, saddle stitched, 21.5 x 27.5 cm,
no ISBN.  $11.95 plus postage.

        Those of you who give talks and present workshops on butterflies know
that many questions from the audience come up over and over again.  So I imagine
that many of you, like me, have answered some of these questions enough times to
have worked out fairly comprehensive and satisfying answers.  Gary Ross has done
likewise during his many years of teaching and has compiled those answers in
written form.  The purpose of this book is to counter "the widespread lack of
knowledge regarding even the basics of butterfly biology" by making this
information available in an inexpensive, easy-to-read format.  In this, Ross has
succeeded admirably.  There are 109 questions posed and answered.  They are
organized into 10 sections: "Taxonomy: Names and Classification," "Form and
Function," "Metabolism: How the Body Works," "Life Cycle: Metamorphosis,"
"Reproduction," "Behavior," "Ecology: Interrelationships, Geography, and
Conservation," "Butterfly Gardens," "Research and Collecting," and "Aesthetics
and Symbolism."  A Glossary and Bibliography complete the book.  Ross is careful
to document his sources of information and his answers are concise and clear.
One may quibble about some of the questions (No one has yet asked me "What is a
butterfly hotel?") and some of the answers (In response to "Are there any fossil
butterflies?" Ross mentions Tertiary specimens from Europe and Dominican and
Baltic amber, but ignores the richest source of butterfly fossils in the world
--- the Florissant Formation in central Colorado, which has yielded 12
species!).  But these are minor quibbles.  With the nation's growing interest in
butterflies and butterfly gardening, this little book should be a boon to anyone
called upon to interpret the lives of butterflies for the public.

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: 26 Apr 1996 12:32:12 GMT

> 1.  What is the largest butterfly, and where is it found?

The Queen Alexandra's Birdwing (ornithoptera alexandrae) has a wingspan 
of 11 1/8 in (280 mm) is found in New Guinea.

> 2.  What is the smallest butterfly, and where is it found?

The Pygmy Blue (brephidium exilis) has a wingspan of 1/2 - 3/4 in (15 - 
19 mm) and is found in North America.

Many butterflies are attracted to carrion, sipping some of the liquids
which are released in the process of decomposition. There are carniverous 
larvae of butterflies which feed on insects such as aphids.

Not that I am aware.

Best wishes!

Christopher Majka
--
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