Butterfly

Monarch butterfly

Description

Any of several thousand species of colorful winged insects of the order Lepidoptera. Butterfly wings have beautiful, often iridescent, colors due to both pigmentation and optical interference.

Synonyms and Related Terms

sommerfugl (Dan., Nor.); Schuppenflügler (Deut.); Schmetterlinge (Deut.); mariposa (Esp.); lépidoptères (Fr.); farfalla (It.); papillo (Lat.); Lepidoptera (Ned.); motyle (Pol.); borboleta (Port.); fjärilar (Sven.)

Additional Images

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  Monarch butterfly larvae

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  Monarch butterfly cocoon

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  Butterfly

Authority

• Encyclopedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com Comment: butterfly." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2005. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service 25 Jan. 2005 .

• Website address 1 Comment: Olympus Microscopy Resource Center at http://www.olympusmicro.com/primer/techniques/darkfieldgallery.html (Accessed Sept. 17, 2005)

• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, at http://www.wikipedia.com Comment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly (Accessed Sept. 17, 2005)