Azure blue Butterfly of South America.

Title

Azure blue Butterfly of South America.

Description

Detailed and descorative representation of two Blue Morpho Butterfly (Morpho peleides).

ca. 1791

Artist

Anonymus

Historical Description

With more than 160,000 described species, butterflies are the second most diverse order of insects after beetles (Coleoptera). In superstition, butterflies were even regarded as the embodiment of witches who were after the cream, which is also indicated by the earlier regional names for butterflies such as milk thief, whey stealer or similar. The English term butterfly points in the same direction and corresponds to the regional terms butterbird, butterbird, butterlicker, as the animals were attracted by churning butter. The word butterfly only became generally accepted in the second half of the 18th century. Until then, this order of insects was still called "day birds" (for butterflies) or "night birds" (for moths) according to Rösel von Rosenhof (1749). Butterflies go through a cycle of unusual shape changes during their lifetime. Eggs develop into flightless "caterpillars", which grow considerably while feeding intensively. At the end of the caterpillar stage, they transform into a more solid shell, the so-called "pupa". In the pupa, they form wings and transform into the flying form, the so-called "moth".