Don’t Steal Our Butter, Butterfly

A few facts about butterflies, from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Attack of the Factoids. 

People in the Middle Ages in Europe believed that butterflies were fairies in disguise, fluttering by to steal their dairy products.

In the early 1700s, butterfly collector Lady Eleanor Glanville was declared insane after an entomologist testified, “None but those deprived of their Senses would go in Pursuit of butterflyes.”

There are 15,000 to 20,000 species of butterflies in the world— 4,000 are in the South American rain forests alone.

Like bees, butterflies pollinate plants.

Some butterflies have ears on their wings.

Butterflies suck nectar from flowers using their proboscis, which works like a straw. When not in use, it curls up so it’s out of the way.

The scales on a butterfly’s wing overlap like roof tiles.

Lolita writer Vladimir Nabokov was also a compulsive butterfly collector and researcher.

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The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Attack of the Factoids. Weighing in at over 400 pages, it's a fact-a-palooza of obscure information.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!