Delicate, elegant, romantic Butterfly

Symbolizing elegant beauty, butterflies have made Turkey, especially Fethiye and the Kackar Mountains, their home.


With their delicate bodies and brilliant colors, butterflies go hand in hand with days of sunshine and fields of wild flowers. What is it that gives them their spellbinding beauty? Their wings, of course, which seem to consist of brightly colored dust. In fact it is not dust at all but scales that look like grains of dust. These scales distinguish butterflies from other insects as the 'scaly-winged order', one of the largest insect groups with 150,000 species. Among themselves they are divided into two groups, diurnal and nocturnal, which are easily distinguished: while butterflies hold their wings vertically, moths flatten them against the surface on which they are resting their bodies.

350 SPECIES OF BUTTERFLY IN TURKEY

Butterflies are found in all regions of Turkey. But if you want to see a lot of different species all concentrated in one place, you need to go to their favorite haunts--rural areas with plenty of flowers, sun, humidity and sources of water. The Kaçkar Mountains are a butterfly paradise in this sense. Their southern slopes and valleys in particular, with their low level of rainfall, humidity and wind, constitute Turkey's most important butterfly habitat.

Indeed, over a hundred different species were identified here in the valleys and meadows around the Barhal river--an extraordinary number when we consider that there are around 345 species of butterfly living in Turkey. And when we consider that there are around 500 species of butterfly in all of Europe, it is readily apparent how rich Turkey is in this fauna.

350 SPECIES OF BUTTERFLY IN TURKEY

Butterflies are found in all regions of Turkey. But if you want to see a lot of different species all concentrated in one place, you need to go to their favorite haunts--rural areas with plenty of flowers, sun, humidity and sources of water. The Kaçkar Mountains are a butterfly paradise in this sense. Their southern slopes and valleys in particular, with their low level of rainfall, humidity and wind, constitute Turkey's most important butterfly habitat.

Indeed, over a hundred different species were identified here in the valleys and meadows around the Barhal river--an extraordinary number when we consider that there are around 345 species of butterfly living in Turkey. And when we consider that there are around 500 species of butterfly in all of Europe, it is readily apparent how rich Turkey is in this fauna.

3200 KILOMETERS A YEAR

But butterflies are not encountered only in low-lying meadows; mountains too are butterfly habitats. The rich diversity of flowers and plentiful water in the Alpine highlands make them a haven for butterflies.

The most impressive story concerning the hardiness of these delicate-winged creatures is that of the migration of the Monarch species. Starting out from Canada in the autumn, millions of these butterflies migrate 3200 kilometers to Mexico, where their journey ends on a mountain slope covered in volcanic rocks. Eating nothing during the entire winter, the butterflies return to Canada by the same route after mating in March.

LESS EPHEMERAL THAN YOU THINK

The life span of this elegant group of creatures with the most stunning colors in the insect world is not, as is commonly supposed, limited to a few days. Some species may live two or three months.

Cold-blooded, butterflies rely on solar energy and therefore cannot fly in an environment whose temperature is below 12-13 degrees C. Consequently they are only seen on warm, sunny days. In the evening hours when the air begins to cool, they usually take refuge on the undersides of leaves or flowers where they spend the night. They spend the long, cold winter months generally as larvae, chrysalises or caterpillars, in the hollows of trees or beneath leaves on the forest floor. Butterflies take completely different forms in the various stages of their lives. The young that emerge from larvae as caterpillars may be either vegetarian or carnivorous. Caterpillars in the first stage of their lives, butterflies later metamorphose from a cocoon or chrysalis.

The reason butterflies flit from flower to flower is that they obtain nourishment by sucking the nectar of flowers through a tube in their mouths. Bearing pollen as they flutter from flower to flower, butterflies aid in the fertilization of plants. Besides performing an important function, these romantic flights by nature?s most romantic and beautiful creatures are also a source of delight for humans.

Source: Sky Magazine