The butterflies seem to like Diana’s company, since she is always very gentle and careful with these mesmerizing creatures.
Back in the 1800s, naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace collected these butterflies in Southeast Asia and his research suggested that the butterflies gradually evolved to look like leaves to escape hungry birds. Yet some other scientists would propose alternative explanations that their transformation originated suddenly, without intermediate forms. The largest ever recorded had a wingspan of 27.3 centimeters, and is kept in the Natural History Museum’s Lepidoptera collections in London. When it comes to the highest-flying one, no one can beat Piercolias forsteri. They can be found in the high Andes mountains of Bolivia in South America, about 4,200 meters above sea level.
It’s interesting to mention that migrating monarchs live up to 9 months, while the ones that don’t migrate live only 2 to 5 weeks. Some monarchs fly for over 3000 miles on their migratory journeys and can reach speeds up to 50km/hr. It turns out, these butterflies have a tiny built-in magnetic compass, which helps them to sense the Earth’s magnetic field, this way finding the right direction to travel in any weather.
For example in Ireland and Germany, butterflies were thought to be souls of children, while in Japan, they are connected with deceased spirits, and can be seen as both a positive and negative omen depending on the person. “Butterflies are nature’s angels. They remind us what a gift it is to be alive,” Robyn Nola once said and, thanks to butterfly whisperer Diana Murguta, all of us can take a glimpse at the most fragile and the most mesmerizing ones!
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