THE BUTTERFLY HOUSE - Blenheim Palace

Butterflies and moths are known as Lepidoptera which means“scale wings”. Butterflies have tiny scales on their wings andthese scales give them their colourful patterns. (The scalesare only loosely attached and come off very easily iftouched.) Often butterflies have a different pattern or evencolour on the underside of their wings.You can try and find the butterflies drawn here and see whatcolours need to be added to these drawings.Almost all butterflies rest with their wings closed above theirbody so the best way to see their beautiful colours andpatterns is to watch them as they fly.Butterflies feed on liquids which they suckup through a hollow tongue or tubeknown as a probiscus. They keep thiscurled up under their heads when theyare not feeding. Nectar from flowers is themain food of adult butterflies.27

You may be able to spot some of the more commonbutterflies that live in this country either in your own gardensor here at Blenheim in the formal gardens and especially inthe Secret Garden :-The Large White flies from April to October.The Red Admiral flies from May toOctober.The Painted Lady flies from April toOctober and likes thistles.The Small Tortoiseshell is very common in gardens. It fliesfrom May to October and likes stinging nettles.The Peacock flies from June to September and also likesstinging nettles.The Meadow Brown is one of the most common of ourbutterflies. It flies from May to September and likes grasses.The Small Copper flies from February to November and likessorrels and docks.The Common Blue flies from April to October and likesvegetables.The Holly Blue flies from April to September and likes hollyand ivy.The life cycle of butterfliesMale and female butterflies are attracted to each other firstby sight and then by smell. The female butterflies lay theireggs on the plants that the caterpillars will need for food. Theeggs usually hatch in a couple of weeks, The caterpillars have3 pairs of legs at the front and 5 pairs at the back, the legs onthe last part of the caterpillar are called “claspers” and theyhelp the caterpillar hold on to the twig they are on.Caterpillars have jaws and theymostly eat leaves. They eatalmost all the time. When thecaterpillar’s skin is too tightbecause it has eaten so much, itbursts out of its skin, havingalready grown another, bigger one under the old skin. Mostcaterpillars do this four times during their life as a caterpillar.It can take about four weeks to become fully grown.When thecaterpillar isfully grown itstops eating andturns into achrysalis orpupa. This is thetime when thecaterpillar turns63

into a butterfly. The caterpillar spins a silken cocoon arounditself and when it has changed into a butterfly it burststhrough and is very quickly ready to fly.Wings are not just for flying. Bright colours on a butterfly’swings can attract a mate or be used to scare off a predator.Some of the butterflies you may see in the Butterfly House atBlenheim are shown on these two pages and in the picturesthroughout this booklet.When held open, wings can be used like solar panels towarm the blood and the blood takes heat back to the body.45