Butterflies feel no pain but if you think it can't survive, a gentle way to send it on the ”Butterfly Heaven” is to place it in a small sandwich bag in your freezer. The butterfly will simply fall asleep and then pass on.
According to entomologists, butterflies do not feel pain. Although butterflies know when they are touched, their nervous system does not have pain receptors that registers pain as we know it.
Although butterflies don't experience altered consciousness like many animals, they become quiescent.
While I've written stories about Monarch butterflies before, and I'm sure you've read or watched something about their amazing migration to Mexico, this story will touch on a much darker aspect of their lives: their uncontrollable aggression.
While it is important to be extremely gentle when petting a butterfly, the consequences are rarely so dramatic. The dust you may see on your finger after touching a lepidopteran wing is actually made up of tiny wing scales (modified hairs). If too many scales are rubbed away, the wing is more likely to tear or fail.
The butterfly is not hurt when you cut the wing. It's like getting a haircut.
“Excessive handling is not good for butterflies, it's not great to touch them; but a lot of time you can gently catch them in your hands and they will fly away and be just fine,” Tom Green County Horticulturist Allison Watkins said.
They are social animals & crave companionship, & so bond easily with humans. Insects operate largely on instinctual behaviour. Survival instincts like flight from shadows & sudden movement are hard-wired & inherited. Any insect which does not respond to perceived threats will be eliminated & not pass on its genes.
Monarch butterfly migration
Of course butterflies don't scream (at least at a frequency that humans can hear!).
Yes. If intelligence is the ability to seek out nectar and pollinate flowers, yes. In terms of long-term travel to their southern climes and back, Monarchs in particular never cease to amaze.
Many Nymphalidae butterflies have ears and scientists have confirmed hearing in several species using neuroanatomical and neurophysiological methods. Ears are mostly sensitive to sound frequencies between 500 Hz and 6 kHz, overlapping the hearing range of humans.
Insects can see light that is invisible to humans. The amazing thing about insect vision is that they have photoreceptors that detect ultraviolet light that is invisible to many animals, including you!
In summary, unlike humans, butterflies cannot remember personal experiences (if any) from their time as a caterpillar. Their memory is strictly biological, allowing them to recall things that endanger their well-being—like an electric shock!
Here's Why Butterfly Releases Are a Bad Idea
Many are crushed or die from exposure before they even reach their destination. The North American Butterfly Association (NABA) points out that “many wedding planners now avoid butterflies at weddings because they not infrequently arrive dead, or half-dead.”
Yes, butterflies and all other insects have both a brain and a heart. The center of a butterfly's nervous system is the subesophageal ganglion and is located in the insect's thorax, not its head. The butterfly has a long chambered heart that runs the length of its body on the upper side.
Butterflies seem gentle as they flutter from plant to plant. But some may be more murderous than you imagine. Naturalists recently witnessed several species of milkweed butterfly harassing, subduing and subsequently feeding on milkweed caterpillars, presumably to get their fill of toxic alkaloids inside the larvae.
Hamadryas species emit easily heard clicks, and they are often referred to as “cracker” butterflies. Because Hamadryas butterflies make their sound when disturbed by other animals, some butterfly experts believe the noise is made simply to frighten predators.
Butterflies are attracted to the salt in your sweat.
The natural salt and minerals in sweat can draw a butterfly to land on you. Think of it this way, your sweat is just as sweet as a flower's nectar to a butterfly. This is also why you may see butterflies settling next to puddles or on mud—they're looking for salt.
If they're on leaves or mud puddles, your natural sweat should help. You can also rub the appropriate leaf on your hand, or dip it into the puddle. Butterflies landing on flowers want nectar, so if you carry one of those straws filled with honey, or any other dissolved sugary substance, you can rub that on your hand.
Fidelity – A butterfly has only one mate for life. It is so loyal that if it's mate dies, it will not take a new mate. Character – Butterflies, especially the swallowtail, will defend its offspring against birds several times its size.
Butterflies don't bite because they can't. Caterpillars munch on leaves and eat voraciously with their chewing mouthparts, and some of them do bite if they feel threatened. But once they become butterflies, they only have a long, curled proboscis, which is like a soft drinking straw—their jaws are gone.
Now they are adults, and wings open up a world of possibilities. They compete and flirt, dancing in the air, circling skyward in a butterfly ballet. When they do mate, they join at the abdomen, facing away from each other. How long they stay together varies widely from couple to couple.
An adult butterfly is fully formed, cannot grow and doesn't really heal. If you find a butterfly with a broken wing, the insect is probably never going to fly again. The butterfly can, however, live. If the butterfly is female and has already mated, she might even lay eggs, which you can raise when they hatch.
Touch. Feet, antennae and minuscule hairs all over its body provide the butterfly with the means to feel an object. The antennae on its head do a lot of multitasking and can sense scent, wind direction and food.