What Eats Butterflies?

When you watch a television show that has a title such as “When Nature Attacks”, you don’t ever really expect to see pretty-winged insects getting ambushed from a nasty predator, so unlike the typical food chain documentaries and other wildlife observations we have seen and read about growing up, it’s a mystery to a lot of us when we try to think of what eats butterflies.

There are a variety of predators that like to chow down on a butterfly like birds, snakes, lizards, rats, and monkeys. Also, there are other insects that attack butterflies such as wasps, ants, and parasitic flies.

Butterflies are basically categorized into two different types, at least from the perspective of their predators, when it comes to deciding which ones to eat. As simple as this sounds, there are delicious ones, and then there are very bad tasting ones. Ironically, it is the most beautiful ones that are worst tasting. Not only do they taste bad, but they produce toxins for the hungry predator to swallow and then sickens them. This let’s them know that they should avoid the bright, multi-colored beauties.

So, if you ever decide to eat a butterfly for whatever reason, I suggest avoiding the pretty ones. Otherwise, we may end up seeing you on one of those shows being taken down by the toxic butterfly!