Wings of Fancy: Butterfly Buddy Quiz

You are most like the owl butterfly. The owl butterfly is beautiful, but its looks are deceptive. The insect drinks juices from fermented fruit, like banana, pineapple, and mango. At rest, the large eye on its wings frightens off potential predators. The butterfly is found in rain forests in Mexico, Central and South America, and the owl butterfly is most active at dusk. 

The zebra longwing is your butterfly buddy. This butterfly ranges from Central America north to Mexico and into Texas and Florida. It finds safety in numbers, and adults often roost in groups of 25 to 30. You probably have heard butterflies drink nectar, but not this one. It feeds on both nectar AND pollen. Because of that extra nutrition, the zebra longwing lives longer than other butterflies--up to six months, as compared to one month for other butterfly species.

FUN FACT: The zebra longwing butterfly is the official state butterfly of Florida. 

The Julia longwing is your butterfly buddy. It is native to Brazil, but is found throughout Central America, Mexico, the West Indies, and into South Florida and Texas. The Julia longwing is a fast flier. To fuel its activity, the butterfly sips nectar, like its other butterfly cousins. The Julia longwing also has a specialized proboscis that allows the insect to eat pollen, which may account for its relatively longer lifespan of three months, two longer than other butterflies. The Julia longwing butterfly can get water from an unusual source—a caiman, a large aquatic reptile. The insect rests on the animal's eyes and irritates them until they produce tears. Then, Julia longwing drinks them up.  

Congratulations! You are most like the common lacewing butterfly. It has lovely orange, black, and white wings with lacy trim. This insect makes its home in southeast Asia, ranging from central India to Thailand and east to the Philippines. The bright colors of the common lacewing signal to potential predators that it will leave one nasty taste in their mouths. The caterpillar feeds on the poisonous plants in the Passiflora family and then stores that poison in its body.

If you are bold and bright, then the blue morpho is your kindred winged insect. The blue morpho lives in the forest canopy of South America, Mexico, and Central America. While the blue of its top wing is bedazzling, the underside has more subtle colors, allowing it to blend with foliage. The butterfly likes going solo, unless it is time to mate. The blue morpho likes liquids from fermented fruit, decomposing animals, tree sap, fungi, and mud. The shimmer on its wings is an optical illusion. Its blue hues change color as the light reflects off the microscopic scales on its wings.