How do butterflies fly?
This is a great question – in fact, it’s a question that has motivated my entire professional career! Now, I’m going to assume you’re asking about the aerodynamics of flying, not how the muscles move the wings up and down. The answer to this question is actually something that we’re only recently (in the last c. 20 years) beginning to understand. Butterflies DO NOT fly like airplanes or birds – they do it differently! Butterflies produce lift, which is the force that keeps butterflies in the air, using small swirling vortices (‘tornadoes’) of air they generate with their wings as they flap them up and down! Producing lift the way airplanes produce lift simply doesn’t work when you’re as small as a butterfly. In fact, butterflies, moths, and other flying insects all seem to use the same or similar ‘tricks’ to keep in the air. It’s a very exciting time to study how insects, like butterflies, fly – in fact, what we’re learning about how insects fly is also helping us with making better flying machines like drones and microaerial vehicles. – Dr. Jeff Dawson
To further explain this complicated subject to a younger audience, Dr. Jeff Dawson created this video and the below image.
Butterflies have well developed wings that they use to escape from predators and find mates. They have strong flight muscles that allow them to fly in zig-zaggy directions to outsmart a bird that might be chasing them. Most butterflies have legs that they use for walking on plants, for example when they are laying eggs. I have never seen a butterfly running. Flying is their mode of transportation when they want to get somewhere quickly. – Dr. Jayne Yack