What are antennae used for?
Antennae are sensory organs that help an insect perceive and navigate its environment. They are very clever organs, like a mix of human fingers and noses, allowing insects to understand their environment.
They are often called ‘feelers,’ but this name is less accurate, implying that insects only use their antennae for touch. The antennae also act as the ‘nose’ of the insect, interpreting environmental smells. As a result, it can help insects to find their food and stay away from predators.
Insect antennae structure
Antennae are made up of different joints, which makes them very flexible and mobile. It means that insects can move around to sense their environment and objects. So next time you see an insect, look out for its antennae and see how much they drive.
The most common type of antennae is filiform antennae. Filiform antennae contain multiple joints that are fairly equal in length and size, with the number of joints depending on the insect.
Filiform antennae are seen in various insects, including crickets, dragonflies, bees, and beetles. Butterfly antennae are also filiform antennae, with small segmented joints like the ones in the picture below.
Butterfly antennae
Butterflies and moths have antennae attached to their heads. These help them balance, especially while flying and smelling the world around them.
Butterflies have two antennae that are broken into segments. Each butterfly antenna has a small club at its end. However, moths do not have these little clubs on their antennae.
Butterfly antennae are very clever. They can also help with navigation, finding their friends, and telling the time of day. The sensors on their feet act alongside the antennae to help them find food, mate, migrate, and sleep.
Their sense of smell is essential. It means they can find flowers with lots of nectar to eat.
Do butterflies taste with their antennae?
Butterfly antennae help them with their sense of smell, which is their most essential sense. However, they do not use their antennae to taste. Instead, they have a proboscis, a long tongue they can unroll to taste and feed with. It has taste buds, which helps them identify the best plants to feed from.
If a butterfly loses an antenna, it doesn’t die. Its senses are weakened, though, as you can imagine, since it would only have one antenna to sense the world with. It means they might lose balance and be unable to sense what time of day it is, at least not as well as butterflies with both antennae.
How to tell the difference between a butterfly and a moth
Butterflies and moths look very similar, so it is easy to confuse them. They have many things in common since they are both insects with big wings covered in scales. Here are some ways to help you tell the difference between a butterfly and a moth.
One of the easiest ways to tell the difference between these two insects is to look at their antennae. Butterfly antennae have small clubs on their ends, making them look like hocvital sticks or golf clubs. In contrast, moths have antennae that are feathery with fluffy-looking edges.
