Butterflies do sleep!

  As a kid, I was taught in grade school that butterflies only lived one day as an adult.  They had to morph, find a mate, eat, lay eggs all in twenty-four hours.  By morning, their lives ended and a new generation took over.  My later years proved this "fact" as fallacy.  Most butterfly species live at least a week and some live up to a year!  There may actually be a "one day wonder" but not according to most butterfly websites.  School taught me a lot of things but, the older I get, the more I find that what I learned was not always fact.

  That said, if butterflies do live longer than one day, they have a lot of time on their hands!  Then came another question...if butterflies live more than twenty-four hours, do they sleep?  Well, yes.  Butterflies do sleep.  In fact, it would be rather ridiculous to think they do not.  At night, butterflies find a safe spot under a leaf or branch or in the midst of a shrub to hang upside down.  There, they do sleep.  In inclement weather, they will find a more sheltered place (thicker shrub or under the eaves of a building if available).  The butterflies will stay hanging in this manner until the morning sunshine warms their bodies allowing them to fly.  As the day begins, the butterflies flutter about the area seeking sustenance from flowers and letting us admire their beauty!

  This small Gulf Fritillary Butterfly was found on my pre-dawn hike around the lower part of the property.  The path led past some weedy spots and I was fortunate enough to spot the beauty.  Since the sun had not risen, the butterfly stayed put and I was able to photograph it quite easily.  This is how butterflies spend the night!  Butterflies do sleep!