where do butterflies live?

Answers to where do butterflies live

Butterflies can be found just about everywhere imaginable: forests, mountains, deserts, jungles, grasslands, marshes, and even the Arctic regions. Butterflies are adapted to their environments. Adaptations are inherited abilities that help butterflies carry out their life functions and survive in the natural world. Adaptations include physical structures (size, shape, and special body features), as well as internal processes (egg production, food digestion and protection against hazards). Butterflies have adaptations for breathing, feeding, escaping enemies, sensing changes in the environment, and mating.

In most parts of the United States, you can find roughly 100 species of butterflies near your home. The number is higher in the Rio Grande Valley and some parts of the West, somewhat less in New England. As one goes northward into Canada the number decreases, while as one goes southward into Mexico the number greatly increases.

At night, or during inclement weather, most butterflies perch on the underside of a leaf, crawl deep between blades of grass or into a crevice in rocks, or find some other shelter, and sleep.

In areas where temperatures drop below freezing during part of the winter, at least one stage in a butterfly species' life cycle must be resistant to freezing if the species is resident. Most butterflies that live in cold climates spend the winter as caterpillars, while almost as many spend the winter as pupas. A few species, mainly tortoiseshells (Nymphalis) and anglewings (Polygonia), spend the winter as adults, hibernating in holes in trees, in crevices in man-made structures, or in other shelters. A very few species spend the winter as eggs.

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