Butterfly Information

Butterflies are insects of the order Lepidoptera. These insects have six legs, one pair of antennae and a segmented body. The segmented body has three parts: a head, a thorax and an abdomen. Butterflies are beautiful insects with large colorful wings. Butterflies come in a variety of sizes. The largest butterfly in the world is the female Queen Alexandra Birdwing butterfly. It has a wingspan up to 12 1/2 inches. Female butterflies are usually bigger than males and live longer. There are about 24,000 butterfly species in the world. More than 700 species of butterflies are found in North America.