Butterflies have never ceased to dazzle and amaze mankind with their colours,1 patterns, and just as importantly, their incredible flying abilities.2 The earliest recorded paintings of these beautiful creatures were found on the 3000-year-old3 tomb walls of an Egyptian named Nebamun, an “accountant of grain” Egy. sš ?sb it—pronounced sesh-heseb-iyt) during the reigns of Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III. The surviving fresco containing the butterflies can be seen at the British Museum in London (right). These large butterflies are thought to be Danaus chrysippus aegyptus; as common in the Nile valley today as they were back then. Did Nebamun ever wonder how such beautiful creatures could fly so effortlessly in his world of long ago? We may never know. But his tomb at least suggests he was captivated by butterflies, as I certainly am.
A casual observer might think that a butterfly simply flaps its wings up and down, but this is not so. Each beat of a rigid wing would simply cancel out the effect of the next. Butterfly wings are incredibly sophisticated. Their structure (and attachment to the thorax and flight muscles) is very complex, with both rigid and flexible wing struts (veins), tough yet flexible membranes, specially folding rear wings, and sophisticated muscle and nervous systems—and programmed behaviour to enable flight to take place.
Read more here: creation.com
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