Butterflies bear the scientific name of lepidoptera. This group belongs not only butterflies, but also moths. The butterflies are distinguished from the latter because at rest they have folded wings, while the moths have them open. They also have allas of colorful colors and many times with striking patterns. All butterflies are of daytime habits and we usually see them frequently.
These flying organisms are insects belonging to the edge of arthropods, that is, they are invertebrate with articulated legs and with an exoskeleton that protects them from the outside. Being insects are divided into three tagmas or structural parts in your body. In this ecology article, we show you schemes of a butterfly in such a way that we will review which are the Butterfly parts and what specific structures are found in them.
Cephalon
This is the first part of the butterflies, located in the anterior region and also known as head. As in other animals, the sensory organs are concentrated here. Therefore, the parts of the butterfly in the cephalón are:
Antennas
The butterflies antennas are long and have a deck shape: elongated and with a rounded tip. They are used for perceive your environment with olfactory and tactile function, with which they even manage to perceive sound vibrations. Also They work to orient. It was discovered that monarch butterflies use these antennas, and not the brain as believed, to be located during their long trips of hundreds of kilometers through America. They use the antennas to detect from the position of the sun and for regulate your circadian cycles.
Discover more about why the monarch butterfly in this other article that we recommend you is in danger of extinction.
Compound eyes
Butterflies’s eyes are composed of hundreds of omatidiasmall but complete eyes with optical nerve, cornea and crystalline. This allows them to assemble the image with the different perspectives received by each omatide, having excellent control over their environment. Despite these hundreds of eyes their vision is not very good and need to help their sensory appendices.
Firitrompa
This proboscide is a rolled language in the form of a tube. It is adapted to suck liquids as if it were. When it is not being used, it is enrolled in a spiral, hence its name, and when it is going to be used for food it extends. Is very flexible and can use it to feed of fruits, flower nectar or even sap that trees exudate.
Aorta
Here begins circulatory system. The equivalent of the blood in the butterflies is hemolymph and this travels to the butterfly through its blood vessels. This aorta receives the hemoolinfa of the heart and reaches the brain of the butterfly to irrigate all sensory organs located in the head. In the following scheme of a butterfly you can see each part in detail.
If you want to know more, do not hesitate to take a look at this article on the characteristics of the butterflies: where they live, what eat, types and curiosities
Chest
If you are wondering what the body’s body structure is, and the moths may also bring you the answer. The thorax is the Central region of butterflies And it is bulkyly. From here their mobile appendices emerge. In this way, in the thorax we find the following parts of the butterfly:
At
Of the parts of a butterfly, what stands out are its colorful wings. They consist of two pairs: front wings and rear wings. They can be of a variety of patterns, shapes and colors, even in ultraviolet that we cannot see with the human eye. These patterns and colors are useful for Mimicize or alert your predators. They are made up of two layers intertwined with veins and are covered by tiny chitin scales that are detached as powder when touching them.
Their wings are functional and are used to move From one place to another, very important characteristic for certain migratory species that seek better temperatures to reproduce. To move them in their characteristic pattern in the form of eight, they use the chest muscles.
Read on the migration of the monarch butterfly in this other post of ecology, we suggest.
Paws
They have three pairs, six legs in totaleach segmented in several units. They are divided into previous legs, medium legs and posterior legs, according to their location. Starting from the base that unites them to the thorax is the coxa, trochanter, femur, warm with thorns, tarsus composed of several tarsomers and at the tip ends with the nail.
These legs also have Sensory capabilities to detect aromas and flavorsthus helping butterflies to have information about their environment.
Spiracles
Finally, within the parts of a butterfly are the spirals. Are Some holes that open and close to allow the Oxygen step inside. They are connected to their tracheal respiratory system to transport oxygen to their entire system.
Abdomen
The abdomen It contains the organs to carry out the basic functions of the butterflies. Within these parts of a butterfly, the organs are divided into:
Digestive system
It contains the glandular and intestine stomach, both inside a digestive tract. It is necessary to highlight that everything that the butterfly eats must be liquid food so that I can process it well.
Reproductive system
The butterfly reproductive system is determined between species and are complementary among them. Thus they can only reproduce between them. In this way, the parts of the butterfly in the reproductive system are:
- The female reproductive system Includes: ovaries composed of ovariolas, oviducts that meet in a common oviduct, a genital chamber equivalent to the vagina known as Corpus Brusaean ovositor to place the eggs and an ovopro as an output duct.
- The male system It has: a penis called Edeago and a pod that covers it called vesica. They have a couple of spermiducts and testicles. They also have Classpers, a structure that attends during intercourse.
Circulatory system
Another of the parts of a butterfly is its circulatory system that continues in the abdomen and transports the hemolymph by a so -called dorsal tube. It is in the abdominal zone where the heart is locatedwhich has an elongated shape. It is supported by the central diaphragm and the ventral diaphragm, which transport the hemoolinfa.
Excretory apparatus
The excretions and osmoregulation of the butterflies occur within the Malpight tubes. These They receive the content of the digestive tract To make excretion more efficient, with less water loss. Once prosecuted, it is excreted together with the feces by the anus.
It is necessary to add that, in these parts of the butterfly (the abdomen), there are also Breathing spiracuses.
If you still want to know more about butterflies, do not hesitate to read this other post about the butterfly life cycle: stages and images or take a look at the video we add underneath to know how the butterflies are born.
If you want to read more articles similar to Butterfly partswe recommend that you enter our biology category.
- National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity Mexico. (2020). Butterflies and moths. Available at: https://www.biodiversity.gob.mx/especies/gfamilia/66524/index
- Britannica Encyclopaedia. (2020). Butterfly Insect. Available at https://www.britannica.com/animal/butterfly- insect
- Burns, J. (2009). The monarch butterfly GPS. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/ciencia_tecnologia/2009/09/090924_1700_mariposa_monarca_gtg
- Rubio, j. & Valencia, M. (2009). Comparative study of the female reproductive system of three species of Nymphalidae (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) of Colombia. Scientific Bulletin. Museum Center. Natural History Museum, 13 (2), 117-125.
