Fun Facts

Caterpillars and butterflies are a beautiful and fascinating example of metamorphosis. In your Clearview Butterfly Zoo kit, you will find fun facts to teach kids more about these amazing creatures. Below are even more caterpillar and butterfly facts to share with your little ones!

  1. They smell and hear with their antennae and taste with their feet.
  2. They are the most widely distributed butterfly in the world and can be found on all continents except Antarctica and Australia.
  3. Some species can fly up to 30 mph and travel as far as 100 miles in one day.
  4. The caterpillars weave tents of silk while eating to protect themselves from predators.
  5. The caterpillars will shed their skin (molt) 4 times and grow a larger head each time. Upon their 5th and final molt, they become a chrysalis.
  6. While a chrysalis, the caterpillar’s old body liquefies and then reassembles as a butterfly.
  7. They are cold-blooded creatures and cannot fly if it’s cold outside.
  8. They use their wings as solar panels to help warm them up and get energy to fly.
  9. The adult butterfly has eye patterns on its wings to scare off predators.
  10. The caterpillar has 6 eyes, but they cannot see very well.
  11. True to being an insect, the caterpillar only has 6 legs that are jointed to the body even though it looks like they have more. The other legs you see from the middle to the back are not jointed and are called pro-legs, which means “false legs.”
  12. The adult butterfly has 2 eyes made up of 10,000 lenses that are able to see the entire color spectrum.
  13. The caterpillar does not have lungs, but absorbs oxygen through little holes on the sides of its body called “spiracles.”
  14. There are about 24,000 different species of butterflies that have been discovered around the world.
  15. Butterflies are pollinators and help us grow fruits and vegetables by spreading pollen.