A butterfly’s coiled, tubular tongue (really a feeding tube, or proboscis) is made from the maxillae (secondary mouthparts) of the caterpillar, which become very long and fuse together.
Butterflies smell with their antennae and taste with their feet! Though they may select plants first by leaf shape or color, often they confirm a plant’s identity by “tasting” it with their feet (or tarsi) before depositing their eggs.
Like other insects, butterflies have compound eyes with many tiny facets. Some butterflies’ eyes are built like bifocals. They have vision all around, but the area in front and below them is magnified to help them find the right plants.
Butterflies can see colors in the ultraviolet range, so colors and patterns look different to them than to us.
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| Crimson Tip Colotis danae "Tasting" with tarsi Detail from Plate 26. Edward Donovan, Natural History of the Insects of India. London, 1842. |
This tropical longwing butterfly shows the coiled proboscis |
Back to Butterfly Basics.
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| Detail showing proboscis and antenna. Plate 16, Vol. II. Alexander Walker Scott, Australian Lepidoptera and their transformations. London, 1864-1898. |
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