What do adult butterflies and moths eat?
Most butterflies use their proboscis (tongue) to obtain nectar from flowers. Some species obtain juices, salts and moisture from rotting fruit, mud, dung, and even dead animals, and in the American tropics there is one group, the longwings (Heliconius), that collects and digests pollen. Moths have similar feeding habits but one species laps up blood from the wounds on large animals and another feeds on the secretions from around the eyes of cattle and elephants! Surprisingly, many moths, such as the silkmoths (Saturniidae), yucca moths (Prodoxidae) and gypsy moths (Lymantriidae), do not feed as adults. In these cases, their adult lifespan is limited to a few days or at most a week. [Back to FAQs] 12. How do Monarch butterflies breathe? When we breathe, oxygen goes into our lungs and is picked up by blood which carries it to cells throughout our body. Because we are relatively large, we need this complicated system. But insects are so small that tiny air tubes (called tracheae) carry ai
