why does butterflies have colorful wings?

Question

why does butterfly have that very colorful wings while other butterflies doesn't have any colors at all?

Answer 1

first lets rephrase the question to

why would a butterfly need colourful wings?

Well our fluttery friends have few needs (an obvious insult to butterflies the world over... you have my apologies) so this can be broken down to

Food

Reproduction

Protection

Each of these needs can sometimes be fulfilled by colourful wings e.g. for protection they rely on "cryptic colouration". And that is why butterflies have colourful wings

In greater detail on each of these topics may be explored on the web, with the wikipedia article on the subject being a nice place to start.

Answer 2

Butterflies drink from flowers. Flowers open in the day time. So...
buterflies do all their business in the daytime. Butterflies are visually
oriented to find flowers. As butterflies are diurnal their mating success
depends on being seen as well. The bright colors are species specific. It
is the way that males and females find the right mate instead of wasting
time chasing a mate of the wrong kind. Since many different butterflies may
drink from the same flowers, they need to make sure they mate wih the right
type. Male butterflies are territorial and defend their space in spots of
sunlight. The females judge good genes from the bright colors. The pattern
must be true to the species for the female to choose her mate. Bright colors
attract mates. Their poor cousins the moths, who are nocturnal mostly are
dull and brown. They use pheromones (smells) to find each other in the dark.

Answer 3

Most female butterflies have brown or plain wings its the males that have colourful wings to attract the females - its a mating thing I think

Answer 4

Gud question,

This feature we seeing in butterflies as well as most of the birds is for attracting its partner or its opposite sex partner.
these feature is seen maximum level in male genders..

for example: Peacock

peacock has very bright tails to attract its partner Peahen.

here, in this butterflies matter this colourful wings were not only for attracting purpose.its also for hiding itself from its enemies while they are having their food (honey) in flowers...

Cheers'
Janakiram.S.K

Answer 5

Scares predators. Generally, bright colors mean poisonous in the animal kingdom

Answer 6

just my opinion

colourful ones are from places where they need to pretend they are poisonous and plain ones from places that they need to be inconspicuous. ?

Answer 7

to hide them from enemies while they drink the flower juice ...

Answer 8

evolution