What does a butterfly use to defend itself?

Answer 1

actually the butterfly defend by caterpillar : hiding,camouflage and there eyespots may scare off some predators

butterfly: they have strategies like looking like a dead leave and other like the bark of a tree. Some butterflies are poisonous (monarchs) so when a bird swallows it, it then vomits a lot and learns to never eat butterfly again.

Answer 2

Here are three ways;

Camouflage: Making your appearance blend in with the background, so things can't see you.

Mimicry: Behaving in a way that resembles something a predator won't eat.

Bad taste: This kind of ties in the the above. There's a type of butterfly that tastes really bad, at least to potential consumers. Then there's another type of butterfly that looks nearly identical to the bad tasting one (but is in fact quite tasty and nutritious). As a precaution, predators avoid both, as they lack the intelligence to instantly differentiate (they can't do Calculus :P).

Answer 3

Some moths and a few butterflies have big eye or mouth patterns (with teeth) on their wings. They open their wings suddenly so it looks like the teeth are jumping at you. Others (most) taste bad and are even poisonous from the toxins in the plants they ate as a caterpillar. Those sometimes get eaten but the predator only eats one before he gets sick and avoids all the butterflies that look like that. So some butterflies that are less poisonous change over generations to look more like the poisonous ones because the ones that don't change get eaten before they lay eggs.

Answer 4

Butterflies use camouflage, mimicry, and warning coloration as defense mechanisms to avoid predators. Some butterflies also have toxic chemicals in their bodies that can make them distasteful or harmful to predators.

Answer 5

butterflies are poisonous to eat. they're prey know not to eat them because of this

Answer 6

nothing at all

Answer 7

Fly away.