Bees are generally considered the most well known pollinators on our globe. However butterflies can do the job too.
Anatomy
First off, what exactly are butterflies? Butterflies are insects. This means that their main body consists of three parts, the head, the thorax, and a long abdomen. Attached to these are large, colourful wings. Butterflies can be separated from moths, by the fact that a resting moth has its wings open while a butterfly would have them closed. They also have antennae on their head, which help with navigation, balance, smell, and sense of time.
Pollination
The butterflies are attracted to the flowers due to the colour, and then they eat the sap. While they are doing this their wings are coated by the pollen on the flowers, so that when they move onto their next flower the pollen is spread too. Butterflies are less efficient due to the minimal amount of pollen they can pick up and their fewer numbers. However many plants are still pollinated in this way.
Ecosystems
Multiple butterfly species are important to the balance of their ecosystem. A notable example of this is the monarch butterfly. Their larval caterpillar state is one of the only creatures that can eat the poisonous milkweed plant. As such the butterfly population keeps the milkweed in check. If this balance is tipped and the butterf;ies are being affected by, for example pesticides, milkweed can quickly overrun the area.
There is a wide variety of butterfly species, the six photographed below are only few of the many found in the Netherlands.
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