Butterflies do not have teeth or mandibles. Rather, their feeding mechanism is a long double barreled tube called a proboscis. Because they feed through what is essentially a double barreled straw, butterfly diets are exclusively liquids. The preferred diets will vary considerably depending upon the butterfly species. While people generally think of butterflies as feeding from the nectar of flowers, other common diets include mud, cow dung, water and tree sap.
People often ask if butterflies are important pollinators.
The answer is, with some important exceptions, no. Bees are the pollinating workhorses of the world. For those species that are pollinators the pollen will stick to the proboscis or legs and be deposited involuntarily on the next flower visited. The butterflies' ears, tight membranes similar to a human eardrum are also located here. Though it cannot be seen, these membranes have hairs just under them.