Years and even centuries will pass, and nature will not cease to amaze people with the refinement and charm of their creations. Butterfly sailboat is an ideal confirmation of exceptional beauty, combined with lightness and unobtrusiveness. To observe the fluttering of a creature that descended from the pages of fairy tales saturated with a special mood means to be transported back to the careless years of childhood. Feel, as before, the magic of a marvelous moment.
Description of Butterfly Sailboat
A large percentage of day butterflies existing in nature belongs to the “cavaliers” family, otherwise called “sailboats”. It has incorporated about seven hundred species classified into twenty genera. Butterfly sailboat differs from other daytime insects in the special shape of the hind wings: the edge that should be in contact with the abdomen is carved in a graceful arc, in addition, most species have tails at the tips, the length of which varies.
Sailboats have other features of the anatomical structure, for example, their caterpillars are the owners of a unique organ - a fork-shaped saccular gland or, called a different language, osmetria. When the caterpillar is at rest, it is impossible to notice, but as soon as the future butterfly feels a threat, the organ will immediately appear. If you click on it, a foul-smelling secret will stand out.
Alexanor
A very beautiful butterfly sailboat with an extremely fast, almost elusive glance of flight. The body reaches thirty-two millimeters in length. Black stripes are clearly marked on the wings, adorning a mottled, yellow background, as well as a continuous blue band that runs along the hind wings. It lives in abundance in southern Europe, loves the flowering slopes of the mountains, especially the thistle growing on them.
It feeds on a plant called “fennel”, and does not disdain other umbrella plants. It can be observed from April to July. He experiences winter as a chrysalis. The appearance of the alexanor is similar to the swallowtail, however, the second is black in the basis of the wings, and the tails on the lower parts are long.
Apollo
The extravagant insects called Apollos belong to the family of sailboats; they do not have tails on the lower part of the wings. This genus includes fifty species, most of which, due to geographical dispersion, in particular, high in the mountains, separated into isolated populations, scientists assigned them the status of a subspecies.
Apollo butterflies live in Europe, are found in Asia, are common in western North America. However, a large percentage of individuals are concentrated in the middle and central parts of Asia. Only climbing into the most inaccessible areas of the highlands, you can see the rarest and most beautiful Apollos. Each insect of this subspecies can be safely called a “butterfly sailfish”. Photos of these wonderful creatures can be found in the article.
Cressida
For the first time in history, these wonderful butterflies were described in the seventies of the eighteenth century by Danish scientist Johann Christian Fabritsky. The man named this genus of insects in honor of the heroine of one of the ancient Greek mythological legends - Chryseids, who was the native daughter of the priest of the god Apollo - Chrys.
Butterfly sailfish, called cressida, is the only representative of the genus. As a rule, females have a pale color, in comparison with males, due to the fact that the former, after numerous flights, lose most of the scales containing a special pigment. He gives the wings a bright color. Males are less mobile, and therefore the color of their wings is more saturated. Both butterflies and caterpillars of this genus are very poisonous due to the fact that the latter eat kirkason plants that grow in coastal regions, as well as in places where the forest grows in rare rows. Cressida is observed in New Guinea, as well as in Australia. As a rule, her flight is smooth and measured, but if you frighten her, she will quickly disappear from sight.
