What do Butterflies do to Help the Environment
Butterflies with their colorful wings and twisting-turning flight mechanism are not just aesthetically pleasing insects but also beneficial to our environment. They eat weedy plants and grasses, help flowers pollinate, and is a part of the food chain, providing a food source for birds, lizards, and other animals. Here are some of the things the butterflies do and help our environment.
1. Help Pollinate Plants
While drinking nectar from flowers, adult butterflies collect pollen grains and carry them to another plant, helping to pollinate different fruit and flowering plant species.
2. Keep Propagation of Plants in Check
Butterfly caterpillars are voracious eaters, and they feed on the leaves of host plants. Therefore, they help specific plant species to lose leaves and prevent them from spreading out of control.
3. Indicate the Presence of a Healthy Ecosystem
Ecologists study the presence of butterflies to find out whether an environment is healthy. Environmental issues like changes in temperature and rainfall amounts, along with loss of habitat, affect the migration patterns of butterflies.
4. Provide Food Source for Predators
Butterflies, during any of their life cycle stages, are preyed upon by spiders, lizards, birds, small mammals, and other insects. The caterpillars are usually eaten by birds because they are easy to catch.