Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Tribe: Danaini
Genus: Danaus Kluk
Species: plexippus
Butterflies do not have teeth. They have a long double barreled tube called a proboscis. Because they feed through a straw, butterfly diets are exclusively liquids. While people generally think of butterflies as feeding from the nectar of flowers, other common diets include fruits, mud, cow dung, water and tree sap. Butterflies are different in their strategies to gather fluid nutrients. The male adult butterflies use mud-puddling to collect sodium and amino acids. During puddling, fluid is pumped through the digestive tract and released from their anus. It is estimated that fluid of up to 600 times their body mass may pass through.
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Tribe: Danaini
Genus: Danaus Kluk
Species: plexippus
Butterflies do not have teeth. They have a long double barreled tube called a proboscis. Because they feed through a straw, butterfly diets are exclusively liquids. While people generally think of butterflies as feeding from the nectar of flowers, other common diets include fruits, mud, cow dung, water and tree sap. Butterflies are different in their strategies to gather fluid nutrients. The male adult butterflies use mud-puddling to collect sodium and amino acids. During puddling, fluid is pumped through the digestive tract and released from their anus. It is estimated that fluid of up to 600 times their body mass may pass through.