Groovy Butterfly. Small White, Pieris rapae, on Aster novi-belgii, New York Aster, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The wonders of nature...
Just, I ask you! just look carefully at that tongue, or better said: that proboscis of our Small White, Pieris rapae. You'll see a kind of seam running down the middle. That seam is in fact a tube through which nectar is sucked up. When a Butterfly comes into the world, its 'later' proboscis has two independent parts called 'galeae'; each is grooved on one side, and fitted together to make up the proboscis - presto! - there's that nectar tube. The proboscis has other organs running its length as well: trachea for oxygen, nerves, and muscles and blood vessels. But its most important function of course is for nourishment usually of liquid nectars. Our Wonderful Insect has saliva, too. If a food stuff is too solid for sucking Butterfly can occasionally emit saliva to dissolve it enough for imbibing...
Here Small White is foraging on New York Aster, Aster novi-belgii. The Latin name sounds like it might be referring to Belgium; that's not the case. In the seventeenth century, the word was the Latin for designating the Low Countries: New York was once famously New Amsterdam.
Groovy Butterfly. Small White, Pieris rapae, on Aster novi-belgii, New York Aster, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The wonders of nature...
Just, I ask you! just look carefully at that tongue, or better said: that proboscis of our Small White, Pieris rapae. You'll see a kind of seam running down the middle. That seam is in fact a tube through which nectar is sucked up. When a Butterfly comes into the world, its 'later' proboscis has two independent parts called 'galeae'; each is grooved on one side, and fitted together to make up the proboscis - presto! - there's that nectar tube. The proboscis has other organs running its length as well: trachea for oxygen, nerves, and muscles and blood vessels. But its most important function of course is for nourishment usually of liquid nectars. Our Wonderful Insect has saliva, too. If a food stuff is too solid for sucking Butterfly can occasionally emit saliva to dissolve it enough for imbibing...
Here Small White is foraging on New York Aster, Aster novi-belgii. The Latin name sounds like it might be referring to Belgium; that's not the case. In the seventeenth century, the word was the Latin for designating the Low Countries: New York was once famously New Amsterdam.