The world of a butterfly by Bert Hooijer

About "The world of a butterfly"

by Bert Hooijer

About the artwork

Butterflies, chaplins or scale insects (Lepidoptera) are an order of winged insects. The order of butterflies is the second largest insect order within the animal kingdom after the orders of Hymenoptera, Dioptera and Beetles: there are about 160,000 described species.[2] Butterflies live in a variety of biotopes: from cold tundra to desert-like areas. Most species live in tropical or subtropical areas. In the Dutch Species Register, of the 18,000 native Dutch insect species, over 2,200 species are recorded as butterflies, so that over 12% of Dutch insect species are classified with the order of butterflies.[3][4] Diurnal butterflies are usually favoured for their variegated colours. Some species of moths, such as the valve moth, are feared or hated because of their noxiousness. The vast majority of butterflies are considered harmless and useful creatures because they are pollinators that cannot sting or bite. They play a role in several cultures and are a common subject in art. Butterflies often have a characteristic fluttering flight and widely varying wing colours. Because the body is easily preserved and the colours are not lost in the process, butterflies have long been collected all over the world. Caterpillars are the larvae of butterflies. The caterpillars of most butterflies feed on plants and some species can cause great damage to crops in the process. And