A bug’s life in full detail

This whimsical site, www.butterfly website.com, will help answer just about any question a child -- or a serious entomologist -- could ask about the fluttering insects. Frantic wriggling is normal behavior for caterpillars (they do it when they feel threatened). Sphingidae moths (easily confused with hummingbirds) have proboscises that roll up like party noisemakers when they’re not being used to sip nectar. Pulelehua is how you say “butterfly” in Hawaiian.

A long list of links (to university extension services, national parks and foreign butterfly websites, for example) extends the site’s usefulness. (Many links, however, lead to “error” messages and should be updated or removed.)

Photographs of most known specimens are presented, some in various stages of life. There are inspirational stories about butterflies (some verging on the overly religious, others simply beautiful), information about ecology and conservation issues, and a heavily trafficked chat room where professionals offer tips to neophytes.

For those planning a butterfly garden, plant recommendations for the flying adult -- and the furry little caterpillar -- are listed for every zone. And there’s a helpful reminder to provide your guests with a damp puddle or a bucket of wet sand to drink from.

Christy Hobart