10 Beautiful Butterflies (Photos)
Butterflies are beautiful pollinating insects in the order Lepidoptera. Their colorful wings and interesting life cycle make butterflies a welcome addition to balcony container gardens. Gardeners often plant flowers that will attract local butterfly species to their gardens.
Enjoy these 10 beautiful butterfly photos!
This swallowtail butterfly is on a phlox flower, a plant that also attracts hummingbirds to the garden. Photo by Sfajane.
Many public gardens have dedicated butterfly gardens where you can see many different species. Photo by David Blaikie.
Butterflies migrate, so you may see them only several months out of the year. Photo by Derek Keats.
Butterflies are insects closely related to moths. They have an complicated life cycle that includes an egg, larva, pupa and adult stage. Photo Gordon Wrigley.
There are somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 butterfly species worldwide. Photo by Robert Claypool.
This clouded sulpher butterfly is on a Salvia species. Photo Laura Perlick/USFWS.
Monarch butterflies are the most easily recognized species in North America. Photo by Greg Thompson/USFWS.
The monarch butterfly needs to eat milkweed plants while it grows. Photo by Maddie List/USFWS.
Skipper butterflies are a type of butterfly that flit and dart through the air. Photo Frank Miles/USFWS.
Butterflies are great pollinating insects, and they are attracted to nectar-producing flowers. Photo by Ron Holmes/USFWS.
