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Posted by on Nov 26, 2015 in TellMeWhy |

Do Butterflies Taste with Their Feet?

Do Butterflies Taste with Their Feet?

Yes. Butterflies do taste with their feet as their taste sensors are located there. They can taste it by just standing on their food. Butterflies taste with sensitive taste organs on the soles of their feet, not with their tongues.

Butterflies feed on the nectar of flowers and other plant liquids. A butterfly cannot bite or chew. It has a long coiled tube, called a “proboscis,” which it uses like a straw to suck liquids into its mouth.

When the butterfly lands on a flower, its feet taste the flower’s sweetness. When a butterfly finds nectar in a flower, it uncoils its long, hollow proboscis and sucks in the liquid. The proboscis coils back up out of the way when the butterfly is finished.

Content for this question contributed by Stephanie Mello, resident of Taunton, Bristol County, Massachusetts, USA