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Most times in life any beautiful individual or lady is often likened to a butterfly, especially if the person in question blossomed into that particular beauty with time. That's how unique the butterfly is. They are as beautiful as they are amazing with lovely wing coats of varied colours.
Butterflies are insects from the Lepidoptera order and come from two Super families of Hesperioidea(skippers) and Papilionoidea(True Butterflies). They can only be distinguished by distinct features ranging from wing colours to antennae. Butterflies are very beautiful creatures of nature that are normal a great sight to behold when they move in groups.
Ordinarily, Butterflies are harmless insects with a will to fly from plants to other parts of a vegetative wild life. What few people actually knew are that Butterflies are very much important to certain plant development.

LIFE CYCLE

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Butterflies undergo a four stage process from the laying of the eggs to full adult butterfly.
The female winged adult lays eggs on plant foods from which they hatch into larvae called caterpillars which in turn feeds in those plant foods until they grow and pupate in a protective container known as chrysalis from where they now mature into full grown adult. When the metamorphosis is complete, the adult Butterflies emerges from the splitting of the pupal skin. The wings are first dried before the butterfly can successfully fly away. This is a very colourful process which is even much more marvelous to watch.
An adult butterfly is mostly characterized by its four wings which are covered in scales of different colours. It's body is divided into three parts: The head, the thorax and the abdomen. There are over 28000 species of butterflies.

Economic Importance

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Pollination of Plants

Apart from its beauty, Butterflies are of so much value to plants, although it possesses some destructive value during their larval stage as it feeds on plant foods and can eventually reduce production rate of plants. Nevertheless, the butterfly does more good than harm to crops.
Butterflies feed on nectar of some flowers for survival. This makes them an unlikely source for pollination. In the process of feeding on the nectar, some pollen sticks to its body, as it moves to another plant, it transfers some of those pollens to those plant, thereby creating an affective cross-pollination. What makes butterfly pollination to be so effective is the fact that they can fly from one pollen of a plant to another plant which are very far from each other and most times in another geographical location.
This type of pollination induces genetic variation of those plants through adoption of certain characteristics from the parent plants from other geographical locations. This can lead to an increase in disease resistant abilities of the new species of those plants.
Pollination in plants are very importance for the development of new plant species that can exhibit unique traits that their parent plants does not have. Although the butterfly is not as effective as the bee when it comes to pollination, they also play a very important role in plant growth.

Ecological Importance

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The presence of butterflies also indicates the sign of a good and thriving ecosystem. This is because they are a part of the food chain as preys and predators. As much as they feed on plant nectar, they are also a source of food to other animals like bat and lizards. So in order to keep the food chain steady, abundance of butterflies are needed.

Helps In Studying Climate Change

Butterflies are sometimes used by scientists and taxonomists alike to study the changes in climate. These group of people study them for signs of change in weather or season. Indeed Butterflies are worth so much more to mankind than just flying and looking beautiful.

Educational and Nature value

Butterflies are being used in educational institutions to teach young students about metamorphosis and life in general. The life cycle of a butterfly has that kind of impact on an educational level due its undeniable marvel. The colored patterns of butterfly wings are also used as case study in studying different species of butterflies by taxonomic students.
Butterflies also have huge value in form of art. Some of the most beautifully done paintings in the world are those of beautifully colored butterflies. An indication that nature is truly beautiful.

Reduce Pollution

Butterflies have also been known to prevent air pollution. Host plants of these butterflies absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which the butterflies(caterpillars) can get from the plants, thereby reducing air pollution significantly.

CONCLUSION

It's undeniably true that Butterflies may appear as very simple fluffy feathered insects. But the truth is that they have a lot more to offer to nature and life as a whole. It's agricultural importance is a blessing to farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs alike. Thanks for reading.

@davonicera