Butterflies and Climate Change

“To restore stability to our planet, therefore, we must restore its biodiversity, the very thing we have removed. It is the only way out of this crisis that we ourselves have created. We must rewild the world!” - David Attenborough

Climate change is among the biggest challenges affecting pollinators like butterflies which are essential to our ecosystem. The health of our environment depends on their numbers. How global warming threatens these colourful, graceful and mystical insects?

• Lifecycle of a butterfly is triggered by temperature. The climate has an impact on the butterfly's body temperature which in turn helps in finding a mate and laying eggs. Warm temperatures increase the number of eggs laid by female butterflies and the survival chances of egg as well as pupa are better. However, warmer winters make the larvae more vulnerable to diseases and fungal infections thereby decreasing larva survival. This results in decrease in overall population of butterflies.
• A few butterflies have special diets and could feed mainly on plants which are more vulnerable to climate change. This causes fluctuations in their food availability. For example, Monarch butterflies mainly feed on the milkweeds. During warm temperatures, Milkweed plant increases the secretion of cardenolide (a steroid) which when consumed in large concentrations can be poisonous to the butterflies.
• Some butterflies aren’t very good at controlling their temperatures with small changes in their behaviour. They instead choose a micro-habitat at the right temperature. Such species are likely to suffer the most from climate change and habitat loss.

Presenting a few photographs of beautiful butterflies from my recent visit to the Butterfly House.

A tryst with nature #butterflies #climatechange

This post is part of Blogchatter's CauseAChatter

  https://www.theblogchatter.com/causeachatter