page_title: Butterfly
section_title: Ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Butterfly / Biology / Ecology
caption_attribution_description: English: Braconid parasitoid wasp Apanteles sp. cocoons &amp; Lime Butterfly 'Papilio demoleus caterpillar at Ananthagiri Hills, in Rangareddy district of Andhra Pradesh, India. The holes trough which the wasp larve left the caterpillar are clearly visible. The white cocoons of the wasp contain their pupae.
context_page_description: Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises the large superfamily Papilionoidea, which contains at least one former group, the skippers, and the most recent analyses suggest it also contains the moth-butterflies. Butterfly fossils date to the Paleocene, about 56 million years ago.
  Butterflies have the typical four-stage insect life cycle. Winged adults lay eggs on the food plant on which their larvae, known as caterpillars, will feed. The caterpillars grow, sometimes very rapidly, and when fully developed, pupate in a chrysalis. When metamorphosis is complete, the pupal skin splits, the adult insect climbs out, and after its wings have expanded and dried, it flies off. Some butterflies, especially in the tropics, have several generations in a year, while others have a single generation, and a few in cold locations may take several years to pass through their entire life cycle.
caption: Braconid parasitoidal wasp (Apanteles species) cocoons attached to lime butterfly (Papilio demoleus) caterpillar
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