Cats and Butterflies

I stumbled across some information on the web about Cats and butterflies that I thought was pretty interesting. This comes from essortment


Cats were first domesticated over 5000 years ago and have since became one of the most popular pets in the world. In several countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, there are more cats than any other pet. Domestic cats now live on every continent except Antarctica and have evolved into over fifty distinct breeds.
Cats were first domesticated by the Egyptians around 3000 BC by accident. Ancient Egyptians stored their food in woven baskets and their storage
areas were infested with rodents. The rodent problem was quite a plague; much of the Egyptians' food and grains were eaten or destroyed by the rodents, who easily chewed through the reed containers. Rats and mice swarmed the Egyptian cities, and with no traps, poisons or other devices to fight against the rodent population, there was not much the Egyptians could do about it. At some point the African Wildcat, a small yellow cat with black stripes, the ancestor of modern day domestic cats, began coming into the cities to feast on the abundance of rodents. The Egyptians welcomed their new neighbors when they realized that the Wildcats were killing off the rodents. Many people began leaving small scraps of food outside their houses to encourage the Wildcats to hunt at their home. The cats soon began to stay in the cities because there they had more than enough to eat. The cats were also protected from being hunted because their predators in the wild would not dare come near humans. The cats and humans seemed to be well matched for each other.
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It was in this simple beginning that the relationship between cats and humans began. Most likely, Egyptians began letting the Wildcats into their homes, where they allowed them to stay to protect the food from rodents. Soon after their initial domestication, the people probably began petting and stroking the beautiful animals, and cats, being naturally affectionate animals, loved the attention.
One would imagine that it would not be long after this that the Egyptians would discover the secret of the cat: it’s purr. Undoubtedly, the Egyptians saw a mystical quality in the purr of the cat. One Ancient Egyptian medicinal text states that a purring cat could induce a more restful and tranquil sleep.
It is unknown when the Egyptians began considering the cat as the embodiments of their gods, but it was sometime after the domesticated African Wildcat had evolved into new species and became the Egyptian Mau. Some speculate that the cats destroying the plague of rodents that afflicted the Ancient Egyptians is what led to them holding cats with such high regard. In Ancient Egypt killing a cat was a crime punished by immediate death. When cats died they were mummified the same as humans were and the cats were buried with mummified mice and rats as well as saucers and food.
For a long time, Egypt had held a strict rule that cats could not leave the country. Despite this rule, some people took the risk and smuggled cats to Europe and Asia. At a later date, the cat population probably got very large because cats reproduce quickly and because all cats in Egypt lived a long and healthy life. It was probably around this time that the Egyptians began selling cats to the Romans, the Gaels, the Celts and later to Europeans and the cat population began to spread worldwide.
The Middle Ages in Europe were a bad time for cats. Unlike the Egyptians who considered cats to be god-like, Europeans saw them as evil demons and witches’ black magical assistants. Cats driven away, beaten, and killed by the gothic people of Europe, and the cat population was nearly wiped out. Luckily, the hate for cats ended when the witch-hunting ceased in Europe, and once again, cats became a popular house pet.
Cats began being illegally smuggled to Asia soon after they were domesticated in Egypt. The Asians immediately loved cats and began breeding them right away. There are several distinct breeds of cats that were first produced in Asia, such as the Siamese, the Balinese, and the Himalayan. Other areas of the world have local distinctive breeds of cats, some of which have been produced by man. The Persian cat was developed in the Persian Gulf; the British Shorthair and Longhair were first bred in the UK; the Maine Coon in the new American colonies. Other breed came about as spontaneous genetic mutations, such as the American Curl cat, a breed characterized by how the ears fold back into a curl. The American Curl first appeared spontaneously in a litter of kittens on a New York State Farm. Still other breeds came about when domesticated cats were moved to a new location, later abandoned, and became feral, such as the Norwegian Forest Cat, a woolly breed native to the cold forests of northern Europe.

Butterflies
These are some very fun and interesting facts about butterflies that I found on a sight called the butterfly sight.

Fun Butterfly Facts:
We have gathered some strange butterfly facts to share with you. Amaze your friends! Enjoy!
Butterflies range in size from a tiny 1/8 inch to a huge almost 12 inches.
Butterflies can see red, green, and yellow.
Some people say that when the black bands on the Woolybear caterpillar are wide, a cold winter is coming.
The top butterfly flight speed is 12 miles per hour. Some moths can fly 25 miles per hour!
Monarch butterflies journey from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of about 2,000 miles, and return to the north again in the spring.
Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.
Representations of butterflies are seen in Egyptian frescoes at Thebes, which are 3,500 years old.
Antarctica is the only continent on which no Lepidoptera have been found.
There are about 24,000 species of butterflies. The moths are even more numerous: about 140,000 species of them were counted all over the world.
The Brimstone butterfly (Gonepterix rhamni) has the longest lifetime of the adult butterflies: 9-10 months.
Some Case Moth caterpillars (Psychidae) build a case around themselves that they always carry with them. It is made of silk and pieces of plants or soil.
The caterpillars of some Snout Moths (Pyralididae) live in or on water-plants.
The females of some moth species lack wings, all they can do to move is crawl.
The Morgan's Sphinx Moth from Madagascar has a proboscis (tube mouth) that is 12 to 14 inches long to get the nectar from the bottom of a 12 inch deep orchid discovered by Charles Darwin.
Some moths never eat anything as adults because they don't have mouths. They must live on the energy they stored as caterpillars.
Many butterflies can taste with their feet to find out whether the leaf they sit on is good to lay eggs on to be their caterpillars' food or not.
There are more types of insects in one tropical rain forest tree than there are in the entire state of Vermont.
In 1958 Entomologist W.G. Bruce published a list of Arthropod references in the Bible. The most frequently named bugs from the Bible are: Locust: 24, Moth: 11, Grasshopper: 10, Scorpion: 10, Caterpillar: 9, and Bee: 4.
People eat insects – called "Entomophagy"(people eating bugs) – it has been practiced for centuries throughout Africa, Australia, Asia, the Middle East, and North, Central and South America. Why? Because many bugs are both protein-rich and good sources of vitamins, minerals and fats.
YOU can eat bugs! Try the "Eat-A-Bug Cookbook" by David George Gordon , 10 Speed Press. Don’t want to cook them yourself? Go to HotLix for all sorts of insect goodies! My favorites are "Cricket-lickit’s" – a flavored sucker with a real edible cricket inside.
Many insects can carry 50 times their own body weight. This would be like an adult person lifting two heavy cars full of people.
There are over a million described species of insects. Some people estimate there are actually between 15 and 30 million species.
Most insects are beneficial to people because they eat other insects, pollinate crops, are food for other animals, make products we use (like honey and silk) or have medical uses.
Butterflies and insects have their skeletons on the outside of their bodies, called the exoskeleton. This protects the insect and keeps water inside their bodies so they don’t dry out. Fun Butterfly Facts:
We have gathered some strange butterfly facts to share with you. Amaze your friends! Enjoy!
Butterflies range in size from a tiny 1/8 inch to a huge almost 12 inches.
Butterflies can see red, green, and yellow.
Some people say that when the black bands on the Woolybear caterpillar are wide, a cold winter is coming.
The top butterfly flight speed is 12 miles per hour. Some moths can fly 25 miles per hour!
Monarch butterflies journey from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of about 2,000 miles, and return to the north again in the spring.
Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.
Representations of butterflies are seen in Egyptian frescoes at Thebes, which are 3,500 years old.
Antarctica is the only continent on which no Lepidoptera have been found.
There are about 24,000 species of butterflies. The moths are even more numerous: about 140,000 species of them were counted all over the world.
The Brimstone butterfly (Gonepterix rhamni) has the longest lifetime of the adult butterflies: 9-10 months.
Some Case Moth caterpillars (Psychidae) build a case around themselves that they always carry with them. It is made of silk and pieces of plants or soil.
The caterpillars of some Snout Moths (Pyralididae) live in or on water-plants.
The females of some moth species lack wings, all they can do to move is crawl.
The Morgan's Sphinx Moth from Madagascar has a proboscis (tube mouth) that is 12 to 14 inches long to get the nectar from the bottom of a 12 inch deep orchid discovered by Charles Darwin.
Some moths never eat anything as adults because they don't have mouths. They must live on the energy they stored as caterpillars.
Many butterflies can taste with their feet to find out whether the leaf they sit on is good to lay eggs on to be their caterpillars' food or not.
There are more types of insects in one tropical rain forest tree than there are in the entire state of Vermont.
In 1958 Entomologist W.G. Bruce published a list of Arthropod references in the Bible. The most frequently named bugs from the Bible are: Locust: 24, Moth: 11, Grasshopper: 10, Scorpion: 10, Caterpillar: 9, and Bee: 4.
People eat insects – called "Entomophagy"(people eating bugs) – it has been practiced for centuries throughout Africa, Australia, Asia, the Middle East, and North, Central and South America. Why? Because many bugs are both protein-rich and good sources of vitamins, minerals and fats.
YOU can eat bugs! Try the "Eat-A-Bug Cookbook" by David George Gordon , 10 Speed Press. Don’t want to cook them yourself? Go to HotLix for all sorts of insect goodies! My favorites are "Cricket-lickit’s" – a flavored sucker with a real edible cricket inside.
Many insects can carry 50 times their own body weight. This would be like an adult person lifting two heavy cars full of people.
There are over a million described species of insects. Some people estimate there are actually between 15 and 30 million species.
Most insects are beneficial to people because they eat other insects, pollinate crops, are food for other animals, make products we use (like honey and silk) or have medical uses.
Butterflies and insects have their skeletons on the outside of their bodies, called the exoskeleton. This protects the insect and keeps water inside their bodies so they don’t dry out.