LIFE as a butterfly is rather hazardous. Butterflies are seen by many a creature as a welcome snack.

Most birds see butterflies as a welcome meal and many carnivorous insects see butterflies as a source of food.

To defend against predators some butterflies use mimicry.

By evolving to have bold eye spots on their brightly coloured wings, the butterfly hopes that by displaying these it will convince a would-be predator that it is just in fact the face of a much larger creature, like a frog or snake.

This must be reasonably effective for this feature to have survived the processes of evolution.

However most butterflies use their powers of flight to avoid predators.

Their large wing area gives the butterflies a rapid take off ability which launches them into the sky out of reach of some would be predators such as carnivorous beetles.

However despite having a good rapid take off, butterflies are not the fastest of fliers and many fall victim to swifts and swallows.

Dragonflies also seem more than capable of preying on butterflies. These expert fliers of the insect world are equipped with long hairy legs which can easily snatch a butterfly in mid air, tearing its wings off with it razor sharp jaws and consuming its fleshy body while still on the wing.

Its size is an advantage as some are too large for the smaller insect carnivores to cope with.

Most butterflies spend most of their lives as caterpillars furiously eating all they can find. A caterpillar's body is ideal for a life of eating but when it comes to finding itself a mate its slightly podgy form is not mobile enough.

Once the caterpillar has eaten its fill it converts all the energy gained from eating all this food and develops into a butterfly through metamorphosis.

As butterflies, they only eat small amounts of high-energy nectar. The bright and bold wing patterns are used as a display to attract.

However their wings are also very delicate and easily damaged beyond repair by inclement weather. It is probably for this reason that we only seem to encounter butterflies on sunny days.

There are, however, a few exceptions such as peacock butterflies. Even at this time of year you may encounter one of them on ivy flowers in a sheltered corner on a sunny day.