3D Animated Short HD: "Sweet Cocoon" - by ESMA
3D animated short called "Sweet Cocoon" about two insects that decide to help a struggling caterpillar in her metamorphosis!
The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies
To capture a butterfly's point of view, camera operators used a helicopter, ultralight, and hot-air balloon for aerial views along the butterflies' transcontinental route. (Learn more about the production techniques and adventure of traveling with the monarchs in an interview with Director Nick de Pencier.)
The film opens with caterpillars munching milkweed in southern Canada in late summer. Soon each caterpillar transforms itself into a silky chrysalis. Roughly 10 days later, a delicate four-winged monarch emerges.
Then, at some unknown signal, the monarchs take to the air on a two-month, 2,000-mile flight over fields, forests, cities, plains, open water, deserts, and finally mountains to congregate in a tiny, high-altitude region of central Mexico where they've never been before. Incredibly, they arrive by the millions at the same time each year.
Shedding light on this natural wonder are some of the world's leading monarch researchers, including Lincoln Brower of Sweet Briar College, independent biologist Bill Calvert, and Orley "Chip" Taylor of the University of Kansas.
Putting the monarch phenomenon into perspective, Taylor says, "You've got a butterfly that's originating in Toronto, or it's originating in Detroit, Michigan, or it's coming down from St. Paul or maybe even Winnipeg, and it's moving south. Somehow it finds its way to Mexico. Could you do that?"
Life Story of a Butterfly (Animal Life Stories)
This book tells the life story of a butterfly, using simple, concise text and stunning photographs. Read it to discover the unique life cycle and metamorphosis undergone by this fascinating insect as it changes from an egg to a caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly.
Article of Butterfly
Source : Wikipedia
Butterflies are part of the class of insects in the order Lepidoptera, along with the moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises the large superfamily Papilionoidea, along with two smaller groups, the skippers (superfamily Hesperioidea) and the moth-butterflies (superfamily Hedyloidea). Butterfly fossils date to the Palaeocene, about 56 million years ago.
Butterflies have the typical four-stage insect life cycle. Winged adults lay eggs on the food plant on which their larvae, known as caterpillars, will feed. The caterpillars grow, sometimes very rapidly, and when fully developed pupate in a chrysalis. When metamorphosis is complete, the pupal skin splits, the adult insect climbs out and, after its wings have expanded and dried, it flies off. Some butterflies, especially in the tropics, have several generations in a year, while others have a single generation, and a few in cold locations may take several years to pass through their whole life cycle.
Butterflies are often polymorphic, and many species make use of camouflage, mimicry and aposematism to evade their predators. Some, like the monarch and the painted lady, migrate over long distances. Some butterflies have parasitoidal relationships with organisms including protozoans, flies, ants, and other invertebrates, and are predated by vertebrates. Some species are pests because in their larval stages they can damage domestic crops or trees; other species are agents of pollination of some plants, and caterpillars of a few butterflies (e.g., harvesters) eat harmful insects. Culturally, butterflies are a popular motif in the visual and literary arts.
Misrepresentation of Butterfly
According to Lafcadio Hearn, a butterfly was seen in Japan as the personification of a person's soul; whether they be living, dying, or already dead. One Japanese superstition says that if a butterfly enters your guestroom and perches behind the bamboo screen, the person whom you most love is coming to see you.
Large numbers of butterflies are viewed as bad omens. When Taira no Masakadowas secretly preparing for his famous revolt, there appeared in Kyoto so vast a swarm of butterflies that the people were frightened — thinking the apparition to be a portent of coming evil.
Diderot's Encyclopédie cites butterflies as a symbol for the soul. A Roman sculpture depicts a butterfly exiting the mouth of a dead man, representing the Roman belief that the soul leaves through the mouth.[94] In line with this, the ancient Greek word for "butterfly" is ψυχή (psȳchē), which primarily means "soul" or "mind"
In some cultures, butterflies symbolise rebirth.[97] The butterfly is a symbol of beingtransgender, because of the transformation from caterpillar to winged adult
In the English county of Devon, people once hurried to kill the first butterfly of the year, to avoid a year of bad luck.
In the Philippines, a lingering black butterfly or moth in the house is taken to mean a death in the family.
