I'm not going to pretend to know a lot about butterflies, but I do know beautiful butterfly pictures when I see them. And these illustrations are gorgeous. The attention to detail is amazing. As a bonus, all the images are large enough to be printed full-size and framed. A grouping of these in separate black frames would be a stunning addition to any environment. (Make sure to follow the instructions below to get the highest resolution versions of the artwork.) You can also use any of these images to create avatar art for blogs or social media sites or to use as inspiration or references when taking painting lessons.

Below the butterfly pictures, you'll also find a video slide show of photographic butterfly pictures. Amazingly, some of the real butterflies are more spectacular and ornate than the illustrations. Proof once again that nature is a wonderful artist.

Choose a thumbnail of any of the butterfly pictures. When you click on one of the images, it will appear larger.

IMPORTANT: Once you've chosen an image and see it larger, double-click on the larger image, which will make the best version of the art appear. Sorry for the extra step, but this will give you the highest quality art.

Then, if you have a PC, just right-click and save the final version of the artwork to your hard drive.

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BUTTERFLY INFORMATION

The Butterfly Life Cycle

1. Egg

2. Caterpillar

3. Pupa

4. Adult or imago

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Butterfly Fun Facts

• Some caterpillars form mutual associations with ants by using vibrations transmitted through substrate, in addition to using chemical signals. They form these associations because the ants provide some degree of protection for the caterpillars.
• Caterpillars also use other means to protect themselves. Some inflate parts of their heads and have camouflage eye spots to appear snake-like. Others have special structures to produce chemicals that smell bad and chase predators away.
• A newly-hatched butterfly inflates its wings with blood and then lets them dry. It is extremely vulnerable to predators during this process, which can take from one to three hours.
• Butterfly wings get their color because minute scales are pigmented with melanins that create shades of black and brown. Blues, greens, reds and iridescence on the wings usually aren't created by pigments but by the micro-structure of the scales.

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For more information, visit Wikipedia's butterfly page.

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