Why are Butterflies Important?

Butterflies help biodiversity. As caterpillars, they feed on a single species or closely-related plants. Plants must evolve defenses to survive predators, but caterpillars will adapt to overcome them. The continuing battle causes more species variation and greater biodiversity.

Butterflies are ecological indicators and can be useful for monitoring ecosystem health and restoration success. Areas rich in butterflies are generally rich in other invertebrates. This provides a wide range of environmental benefits including pollination and natural pest control.

Butterflies are an important food source for other insects, birds, bats and other insectivorous animals (an animal that eats insects).

Butterflies have been used by ecologists as model organisms to study the impact of habitat loss, fragmentation and climate change.

Populations of butterflies and other insects face numerous threats and are declining worldwide. But, we still don’t know enough about most of them to assess the extent of the decline. We need more data!

Posted on May 13, 2019 06:47 PM by lchung lchung

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