Is butterfly a beneficial insect or a pest

Butterflies are arthropod insects lepidoptera hammer angle animals collectively, there are about 14000 kinds of species in the world, most of them distributed in the Americas, especially in the Amazon River Basin, there are 1200 species in China, colorful, there are many stripes on the body, rich colors, wings and body have a variety of flower spots, let's take a look at butterflies are beneficial insects or pests!

Is butterfly a beneficial insect or a pest?

Butterflies are pests in their larval stage because they nibble on plants and beneficial in their adult stage because they pollinate plants by flight. In fact, there are not many kinds of material damage to human beings, such as rice butterfly, rice eye butterfly, cabbage butterfly, orange butterfly, camphor butterfly, and transfer butterfly. Most butterflies are beneficial, such as pollinating plants, maintaining ecological balance and beautifying nature. If there were no butterflies and bees on the earth, there would be no beautiful flowers, the earth would be eclipsed, there would be aphids and gray butterflies, and there would be other medicinal and edible species.

What do butterflies eat?

1. Larvae: The feeding objects of butterfly larvae vary according to insect species. Most larvae prefer to eat leaves. Some species, such as pollen butterflies, orange spotted butterflies, etc., prefer to eat flower buds. There are also some species that eat tender pods or young fruits. For example, pod gray butterflies eat tender pods. Gardenia gray butterflies eat gardenia young fruits. In addition, there are a few species of larvae in the family Lycaenidae that are carnivorous. For example, Lycaenidae eats coffee scales, and Lycaenidae feeds exclusively on bamboo aphids. This carnivorous species is rare among butterflies.

2. Adult: Most butterflies suck nectar. As far as nectar sucking butterflies are concerned, they not only suck nectar, but also like to suck nectar from certain plants. For example, blue butterflies suck nectar from liliaceae plants, cabbage butterflies suck nectar from cruciferous plants, and leopard butterflies suck nectar from compositae plants. Some butterflies that do not suck nectar include bamboo butterflies sucking fig juice, pale purple butterflies sucking sour juice from diseased oak and poplar trees, and some butterflies suck grape flesh. Butterflies are common in grape fields.

The growth process of butterflies

1, eggs: butterfly eggs are generally round or oval, the surface has a waxy shell to prevent water evaporation, one end has a fine hole, is the sperm access. The size of eggs varies greatly among different species of butterflies. Butterflies generally lay eggs on the leaves of plants that larvae like to eat, preparing food for larvae.

2. Larvae: After larvae hatch, they mainly eat, eating a large number of plant leaves. Larvae have various shapes, mostly meat insects, and a few caterpillars. Butterflies harm agriculture mainly in the larval stage, as larvae grow, generally after several molting.

3, pupa: larvae mature to become pupae, larvae are generally hidden in the back of plant leaves, with a few threads to fix themselves, and then directly pupate, no cocoon.

4. Adult: After the pupa matures, it breaks out from the pupa, but it takes a certain amount of time to dry and harden the wings. At this time, the butterfly cannot avoid natural enemies and belongs to the dangerous period. After the wings spread open, the butterfly can fly, the butterfly's front and rear wings do not flap synchronously, so the butterfly flies with great fluctuations and graceful posture. The so-called "dancing" comes from the butterfly's flight. Most adult butterflies die before winter after mating and laying eggs, but some species migrate south for winter.