What is butterfly puddling? What are the importance of puddling?

Butterfly:

The butterfly is a beautiful creation in the world. Butterfly has huge impacts on nature. Butterfly plays a vital role in increasing biodiversity. Increasing the number of butterflies in any place means that the organisms of that place will have a great environment to live in. Because of the butterfly's work as an index of nature. It is also an important part of the food chain. They work as a plant-pollinator. They play an important role in ‘pollination’  by neutering. About 75 percent of pollination depends on butterflies all over the world.

[You can also read this- How butterflies impact nature? ]

This is a malayan butterfly during puddling Mud puddling of ??????? ??????, the Malayan butterfly. Captured from Satchari National Park, Sylhet, Bangladesh This is a linblue butterfly during puddling Puddling of line blue butterfly. Captured from Satchari National Park, Sylhet, Bangladesh

 Butterfly belongs to the phylum ‘Arthropoda.’ It is under the class ‘Insecta’ and order  ‘Lepidoptera.’ There are about 18,000 species of butterfly around the world. All the butterflies have some common characteristics, and they show some special behavior. ‘Puddling’ is one of those.

What is Puddling?

‘Puddling’ is one of the most conspicuous behaviors of butterflies. Butterflies take nutrients from different moist substances. This behavior is called “puddling.” Puddling’ is not only seen in the case of a butterfly. It is also seen in some insects from which 'leafhoppers' are noticeable.

Condition for puddling:

The main condition of puddling is the surface needs to be wet. Butterflies always puddle on the wet surface. The surface can be mud, wet silica, rotting plant matters, dung, rotten fruits, etc.

 

Which substances do they take by puddling?

Butterflies sip moisture from wet surfaces. By sipping, they take minerals, salt, and different nutrients inside their body.

 

All these special behaviors are seen mostly in the case of male butterflies. Female butterflies usually do not puddle. Puddling increases the fertility of the male butterflies.

We often see that many butterflies together form groups. The group moves on the wet surfaces for puddling. It is seen much during summer days in sandy beaches, wetlands, etc. It is often seen puddling in the human body because of sweat, blood, tears, etc. They try to take nutrients from the liquids produced by the human body.

 ‘When butterflies puddle on wet soil, it is called mud-puddling. Mud puddling is mostly seen during post-monsoon when the land remains sei-wet. Most of the time, the puddling groups contain different species. The collected minerals, salt, amino acids, and different nutrients transfer to the female butterfly during mating. Nutrients pass with the sperm of the male butterfly as a nuptial gift to the female butterfly.

Importance of puddling:

There is very much importance of puddling in the life cycle of a butterfly and other insects. The nutrients they take by puddling play vital roles in their physiology, ethology, and ecology. Male butterflies get benefited most from puddling. They take sodium inside during the puddling process. It increases their reproductive success.

You can see the following videos to know more about puddling-

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzpAbMCSqL8

2.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSb5PxWAvrE

So, we can say that puddling is very important for butterflies. We can create reserve places for butterflies to conserve them where they get everything they need.

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Student Department Of Zoology Jagannath University,Dhaka