CityU Web Hacker: Butterfly

CityU Web Hacker

  What is a Butterfly?  |  Flying  |  Life-cycle of a Butterfly  |  References and Links  |  Agreement  |  Authors  

 

WHAT IS A BUTTERFLY?

          Butterflies are beautiful, flying insects with large scaly wings. Like all insects, they have six jointed legs, 3 body parts, a pair of antennae, compound eyes, and an exoskeleton. The three body parts are the head, thorax (the chest), and abdomen (the tail end).

          The butterfly's body is covered by tiny sensory hairs. The four wings and the six legs of the butterfly are attached to the thorax. The thorax contains the muscles that make the legs and wings move.


FLYING

          Butterflies are very good fliers. They have two pairs of large wings covered with colorful, iridescent scales in overlapping rows. Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) are the only insects that have scaly wings. The wings are attached to the butterfly's thorax (mid-section). Veins support the delicate wings and nourish them with blood.

          Butterflies can only fly if their body temperature is above 86 degrees. Butterflies sun themselves to warm up in cool weather. As butterflies age, the color of the wings fades and the wings become ragged.

          The speed varies among butterfly species (the poisonous varieties are slower than non-poisonous varieties). The fastest butterflies (some skippers) can fly at about 30 mile per hour or faster. Slow flying butterflies fly about 5 mph.


LIFE-CYCLE OF A BUTTERFLY

          Butterflies and moths undergo complete metamorphosis in which they go through four different life stages. 

  • Egg - A butterfly starts its life as an egg, often laid on a leaf. 
  • Larva - The larva (caterpillar) hatches from an egg and eats leaves or flowers almost constantly. The caterpillar molts (loses its old skin) many times as it grows. The caterpillar will increase up to several thousand times in size before pupating. 
  • Pupa - It turns into a pupa (chrysalis); this is a resting stage. 
  • Adult - A beautiful, flying adult emerges. This adult will continue the cycle. 

REFERENCES AND LINKS

Butterfly Web Site

All About Butterflies

City University of Hong Kong

Department of Computer Science

2006 eXtreme Web Designer Award

Yahoo!

Google


AGREEMENT

          This website was created as an entry to CityU's "eXtreme Web Designer Award" contest. The authors of this website agree to abide by all the rules and regulations of this contest as specified in: 
http://www.cs.cityu.edu.hk/~hwchun/extreme/


AUTHORS

  • Nardo Leung, 50721677, BScCS 2006
  • Frankie Fu, 50726243, BScCS 2006
  • Ng Kwun Lok, 50918751, BScCS 2006

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