Which Insect Sips Its Dinner Through a Straw?

Poor Butterfly! This beautiful, colorful insect does not have a mouth with which to chew like other insects have. But nature has given the butterfly another way to nourish itself. The butterfly has a long, thin tube, called a proboscis, through which it can suck up the sweet nectar from flowers, the same way you suck up soda through a straw.

This amazing proboscis unrolls when the butterfly wants to drink, then curls back up out of the way when the insect is finished. And what is even more amazing is that the signals that are sent out to the proboscis telling it to uncurl are sent up from the soles of the butterfly’s feet! When the insect lands on a flower, it is its feet that taste the flower’s sweetness. These sweet signals then travel from the butterfly’s feet to the proboscis, telling it to uncurl.