Butterfly Appearance  What a butterfly looks like

 

A butterfly is an insect. It has three main body parts. Image: 'butter...fly333' by Hadi Fooladi  www.flickr.com/photos/71453374@N00/288414045 Released under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License These are the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. The head contains the butterfly's compound eyes, its antennae and its proboscis. The antennae help the butterfly smell and feel. The proboscis is its tongue. It is a long tube that works like a straw and lets the butterfly suck up nectar. When the proboscis is not being used it stays coiled up like a garden hose. The thorax is the chest part of the butterfly. There are four wings attached to the thorax. The two wings closest to the butterfly's head are the forewings and those at the tail end are the hindwings. There are also six legs attached to the thorax. The muscles in the thorax make the legs and wings move. Butterflies also have six legs. Some types of butterflies have two very short front legs. At the end of each foot, there is a claw that helps the butterfly hold on to things. The biggest part of a butterfly is the abdomen, which is at the tail end.

© 2000 - 2007 Jackie Miers

April, 2007