The butterfly belongs to the class insects, arthropod type, order Lepidoptera.
The Russian name "butterfly" comes from the Old Slavic word "babъka", which denoted the concept of "old woman" or "grandmother". In the beliefs of the ancient Slavs, it was believed that these were the souls of the dead, so people treated them with respect.
Butterfly: description and photo. The structure and appearance of butterflies
In the structure of the butterfly, two main sections are distinguished - the body, protected by a hard chitinous shell, and the wings.
A butterfly is an insect whose body consists of:
- Head, inactively connected to the chest. The butterfly's head is rounded with a slightly flattened occipital part. Round or oval convex eyes of a butterfly in the form of hemispheres, which occupy most of the lateral surface of the head, have a complex faceted structure. Butterflies have color vision, and they perceive moving objects better than stationary ones. In many species, additional simple parietal eyes are located behind the antennae. The structure of the oral apparatus depends on the species and can be of the sucking or gnawing type.
- A breast with a three-segment structure. The front part is much smaller than the middle and back, where three pairs of legs are located, which have a structure characteristic of insects. On the lower legs of the forelegs of the butterfly, there are spurs designed to maintain the hygiene of the antennae.
- The abdomen has the shape of an elongated cylinder, consisting of ten annular segments with spiracles located on them.
Butterfly structure
The antennae of the butterfly are located on the border of the parietal and frontal parts of the head. They help butterflies navigate their surroundings, perceiving air fluctuations and various odors.
The length and structure of the antennae depend on the species.
Two pairs of butterfly wings, covered with flat scales of different shapes, have a membranous structure and are pierced with transverse and longitudinal veins. The size of the hind wings can be the same as the front ones or much smaller than them. The pattern of the butterfly's wings varies from species to species and captivates with its beauty.
In macro photography, the scales on the wings of butterflies are very clearly visible - they can have completely different shapes and colors.
Butterfly wings - macro photography
The appearance and color of the butterfly's wings serve not only for intraspecific sexual recognition, but also act as a protective camouflage that allows you to merge with the environment. Therefore, colors can be either monochrome or variegated with a complex pattern.
The size of a butterfly, or better to say the wingspan of a butterfly, can range from 2 mm to 31 cm.
Classification and types of butterflies
The large detachment of Lepidoptera includes more than 158 thousand representatives. There are several systems for classifying butterflies, quite complex and confusing, with constant changes taking place in them. The most successful is the scheme dividing this detachment into four suborders:
1) Primary toothed moths. These are small butterflies, the wingspan of which ranges from 4 to 15 mm, with a gnawing type of mouth apparatus and antennae, which reach in length up to 75% of the size of the front wings. The family consists of 160 species of butterflies.
Typical representatives are:
- golden small wing ( Micropteryx calthella);
- marigold small wing ( Micropteryx calthella).
2) Trunkless butterflies. The wingspan of these insects, covered with dark small scales with cream or black spots, does not exceed 25 mm. Until 1967, they were classified as the primary toothed moths, with which this family has much in common.
The most famous butterflies from this suborder:
- flour moth ( Asopia farinalis L.),
- spruce cones moth ( Dioryctrica abieteila).
3) Heterobathmia, represented by one family Heterobathmiidae.
4) Proboscis butterflies, which make up the most numerous suborder, consisting of several dozen families, which include more than 150 thousand species of butterflies. The appearance and size of the representatives of this suborder are very diverse. Below are several families showing the full variety of proboscis butterflies.
- Family Sailboats, represented by medium and large butterflies with a wingspan of 50 to 280 mm. The pattern on the wings of butterflies consists of black, red or blue spots of various shapes, clearly visible on a white or yellow background. The most famous of them are:
- Swallowtail butterfly;
- Sailboat "Glory of Bhutan";
- Queen Alexandra's birdwing and others.
Swallowtail butterfly
- The Nymphalis family, a characteristic feature of which is the absence of thickened veins on wide angular wings with a variegated color and various patterns. The wingspan of butterflies varies from 50 to 130 mm. Representatives of this family are:
- Admiral butterfly;
- Daytime peacock butterfly;
- Butterfly urticaria;
- Mourning butterfly, etc.
Admiral butterfly (Vanessa atalanta)
Day peacock butterfly
Butterfly urticaria (Aglais urticae)
Mourning butterfly
- represented by night butterflies with narrow wings, the span of which does not exceed 13 cm and is distinguished by a characteristic pattern. The abdomen of these insects is thickened, fusiform. The most famous butterflies of this family:
- Hawk moth "dead head";
- Oleander hawk moth;
- Poplar hawk moth.
- Scoop family, which includes more than 35,000 species of moths. The wingspan of gray fluffy wings with a metallic shade is 35 mm on average. However, in South America, there is a species of tizania agrippina butterflies with a wingspan of 31 cm or an atlas peacock eye, the size of which resembles a medium-sized bird.
Where do butterflies live in nature?
The distribution area of butterflies on the planet is very wide. It does not include only the icy expanses of Antarctica. Butterflies are found everywhere from North America and Greenland to the coast of Australia and the island of Tasmania. The largest number of species was found in Peru and India. These fluttering insects make their flights not only in the flowering valleys, but also high in the mountains.
What do butterflies eat?
Many butterflies eat pollen and nectar from flowering plants. Many species of butterflies feed on tree sap, overripe and rotting fruits. And the dead head hawk maker is a real gourmet, because he often flies into the hives and feasts on the honey they collect.
Some nymphalid butterflies require various trace elements and additional moisture. Their source is excrement, urine and sweat of large animals, wet clay, and human sweat.
.These butterflies include the Madagascar comet, whose wingspan is 14-16 cm. The life span of this butterfly is 2-3 days.
There are also "vampires" among butterflies. For example, males of some species of moths maintain their strength thanks to the blood and tears of animals.
Such is the vampire butterfly (lat. Calyptra).
When a writer becomes the protagonist of a film, then this is an unconditional chance for the viewer to touch the creative kitchen, a chance to feel the writing process, looking at the situation from the inside. The famous actor Brian Goodman (“Catch Me If You Can”, “Cocaine”) shot his second directorial work about a writer who is at a creative dead end. “I'm stuck,” he types endlessly on a typewriter at the very beginning of the film. There is no inspiration, no money either, his beloved wife is gone, a secluded ranch in Colorado is up for sale, and the very bad news is that from time to time women disappear in the area without a trace. It is quite suitable as a basis for a script of a psychological thriller, which is "Black Butterfly", filmed as a remake of the eponymous French television movie in 2008.
But Goodman and his collaborators Mark Friedman (producer of Lafayette Squadron and Straw Dogs) and Justin Stanley (What Loch Ness Hides, Shadow Men) take Black Butterfly to the strange and in the tension of interaction. In the center of the tape - not only the writer Paul Lopez (Antonio Banderas), but also a guy with a completely dark history - Jack (Jonathan Reese Myers, "August Rush", "Match Point"). Jack helped Paul solve one small problem in a roadside restaurant - he stepped on the tail of an overly aggressive trucker who had a grudge against Paul, who was recklessly reckless on a forest road. And it seems that fate itself brings together a once successful writer and a tumbleweed tramp. Jack invited to the ranch turns out to be a tough and businesslike guy and does everything to be as useful as possible and stay longer. When it comes to the sad story of Paul's bad scripts, Jack invites him to write a story about the two of them.
There is very little logic in Paul putting up with Jack and not pushing him out of the door. The story of "Black Butterfly" becomes the story of the owner's confinement in his own house, which is based on a completely traditional thriller basis - a place remote from active life and the absence of any communications. As a result, Jack is not so much trying to stir up the writer as gravitating towards a demonstration of force and real violence. Of course, there is a positive effect from this, Paul, who loves to kiss the bottle, becomes a forced teetotaler. This is a strange game played by the determined but increasingly fearful Banderas and Myers, who still fall short of the universal villain. The spirit of a serial killer is constantly in the air, which gives the viewer a reason to suspect Jack is in everything. At some point, his real estate agent Laura (Piper Perabo, "They Can't Get You", "Coyote Ugly") appears in Paul's house and becomes the driving force behind the entire on-screen story from that moment on.
In Black Butterfly, Goodman is trying his best to create a heightened, forced sense of mystery, drawing on the best examples of a genre with a similar plot like the 1990 Misery, based on the novel by Stephen King. But in the end, it all comes down to manipulating the spectator's patience and predictable trickery, akin to when a magician in a circus pulls a rabbit out of a top hat. Trying to rock the plot with two unexpected twists in the last 20 minutes of the tape is so indigestible that it nullifies all the slightest dignity of the story and the clashes of characters shown earlier. Obviously, the entire film was designed specifically for these twists in the third act, but Goodman makes no effort to ensure that the first two are saturated with meaning and do not contradict internal logic.
In "Black Butterfly", one can suspect of premeditated murders of each of the two main characters, since each of them seeks to dominate throughout the conversation about a possible scenario for Paul's film. But the main fact for this tape is that the creators are so fascinated by their ingenious plot structures that they decisively do not pay attention to the souls of the people who are shown on the screen, and deny the picture the much-needed psychologism almost completely.
The writer Paul has not been doing very well lately: the new book is not for sale, the old royalties have been wasted, the adaptation of the novel has failed - the man pours gin into loneliness in a house located far from people and tries to squeeze out at least one new line from himself. A rare foray into a nearby town almost turns into a tragedy for the writer, he managed to anger the long-range bearer, whose fists itch, but at the last moment, Jack, a taciturn guy hitchhiking, stands up to Paul's defense. Wanting to thank Jack for his salvation, the writer invites the young man to live in his house for several days, take a breath and put himself in order before a new trip, but very soon the guest felt like a master in the house - an assertive guy makes the writer remember what is in these places several women have been killed in recent years. At the same time, with the appearance of the ominous neighbor, inspiration returned to Paul - it remains to wait, which outweighs, danger or curiosity?
The first attempts at a Hollywood adaptation of the French "Butterfly" were made back in 2011. Then the main role in the film was planned to be given to Nicolas Cage.
The secret of the creative process occupies such a significant place in the works of various authors that there is still no exact explanation for the emergence of inspiration and the complete disappearance of any writing or artistic skills. Are these individual qualities that anyone can control himself? Or is it, as one of the poets aptly put it, the breath of God, in which man is only a conductor or vessel? There are no answers, and therefore the authors are in constant search, grabbing for any opportunity to immerse themselves in a new book or film.
Shot from the film "Black Butterfly"
Sometimes for new sensations you have to look at the dark side. In 2008, Karen Hovhannisyan quite vividly described such a dangerous trip in his undeservedly forgotten today "Brownie" with Mashkov and Khabensky, and at the same time, the French turned to a similar story to movie lovers - director Christian Faure shot Eric Cantona in the thriller "Night Butterfly" and Stefan Freiss, spinning a dark whirlpool on the screen, in which the hunter and the victim change places several times in a modest 100 minutes. This film also tells about a writer who found an incentive to write in an acquaintance with a dangerous stranger, but the final somersault here was quite far from the ending of the Russian tape.
Shot from the film "Black Butterfly"
In the cultures of many peoples from different parts of the world, black butterflies are considered harbingers of failure or symbols of impending death.
Licking up on a good plot, Hollywood adapted the French production for themselves and released Black Butterfly, a picture that largely repeats the French original with minor edits - the action was moved from the Alps to Colorado, the mysterious stranger got a little younger, and the maniac was modestly cut list ": the European police were looking for the killer of eight girls, the Americans halved the number of victims. Otherwise, the film crew did not require any special ingenuity, the original quite accurately placed accents and painted the characters. But for some reason, it was here that "Black Butterfly" began to have problems ...
Shot from the film "Black Butterfly"
First of all, the American picture was catastrophically wrong with the caste. It's difficult to make any claims to the choice of director Brian Goodman, the names in his film are sonorous, but all three main actors seem to be out of place. Antonio Banderas, who plays Paul, knows how to be much more convincing, but here even with aloof drinking he turns out badly, there is not the slightest fire in his eyes, and an expression of unbearable boredom does not leave his face. Jonathan Reese Myers, although he tries from time to time to take on more brutal roles, hardly looks like a guy picked up on the sidelines - too sophisticated, too aristocratic. His Jack even looks like he didn't cross the Rocky Mountains for a couple of months, but just left the nearest barbershop. Piper Perabo, on the other hand, cannot be attributed to those women for whom terrible things are done - and she especially does not pretend, in any scene she takes the pose of an inconspicuous decorative bush that accidentally got into the frame.
Shot from the film "Black Butterfly"
But the main problem of the film is that the director cannot cope with the rhythm of the plot. Let's not spoil the denouement, because this is the only thing that makes the film worth watching, but Goodman seems to have released the reins in the first third of the film, and therefore his main secret was prematurely revealed at the end of the first hour, and then a very awkward imitation of a stormy activities more like confusion and panic. It's a pity, because in the original, the authors managed to collect all the darkness that had accumulated in the characters into a fist, and pour it out in the final quarter of an hour in a dense stream.
Unfortunately, we have to admit that Hollywood in this case turned out to be powerless not only to improve the European picture, but even to reach its level. And this despite the fact that the French initially filmed a budget production for TV, and in the main role they played an eminent, but still unprofessional actor, better known for his feints on the football field. A loss to such a rival, Goodman, Banderas and Myers, cannot be considered a plus, for all of them failure should be a good lesson. And a reason to look for inspiration elsewhere, it is sure to wait somewhere.
Paul sits at a typewriter, typing the same phrase: "I'm stuck." The writer tries to get out of the creative crisis with the help of alcohol.
After a picnic, a woman disappears in the forest. The husband calls her unsuccessfully, she does not respond.
Realtor Laura brings potential buyers to Paul's house. He apologizes for the mess in the house, gets into the car and drives away. Laura promises to show the house to clients on her own. Paul comes to the store, borrows groceries there. The murder of a woman is reported on the radio. This is the fourth such incident in the district in the past few years. Paul gets a call from his agent, he says that Paul's script has been returned for revision. Paul curses, he needs money. A truck is driving on the narrow road ahead of Paul's car. Paul cannot overtake him in any way, finally he succeeds. While overtaking the truck, Paul shouts something impartial to the driver. At a roadside cafe, Paul meets Laura. She's in a hurry. Paul asks her out on a date, she agrees to meet him on Saturday. A trucker enters the cafe, overtaken by Paul. He's furious. The frightened Laura leaves. An aggressive trucker tries to get into a fight with Paul, despite his apology. Suddenly, a young guy pushes the rowdy out of the cafe, says something to him. The trucker looks frightened, and the guy takes his backpack from the cafe and leaves on foot. Paul follows the guy, then stops and offers him a ride. They get to know each other. The young man's name is Jack. He travels light with no specific purpose. Paul says that there is a guest room in his house, Jack can live there, take a shower. The guy agrees. They arrive at Paul's house. A terrible mess inside. Paul shows Jack his room.
In the morning, Paul catches Jack making breakfast, and the guest also cleans up the kitchen. Paul continues to drink. The next day, Jack offers Paul to carry out minor repairs in the house and on the site, he is ready to do this for free. Paul agrees. He tells Jack that he is a writer. His first two novels, published in Madrid, were critically acclaimed. Paul (his real name is Pablo) was offered to write the script in Hollywood, he moved from Spain to America. Married the woman of his dreams. But gradually things fell into decay, his texts ceased to be in demand. And then his wife left him. He was left alone in this house, which he bought in the days of success in order to work in seclusion. Paul was removed from work on the script, but the film based on his book was still removed, except for the name of Paul's story there was nothing left. Talking about this, Paul manages to empty a bottle of whiskey. Jack argues that films are not at all like life. He travels a lot, observes people, he knows more about real life than a reclusive writer. Jack asks Paul to read his script. He will then tell him his opinion of a common man. Paul agrees.
Jack bathes every morning in the pond on Paul's lot. On the guy's back, the writer sees a tattoo: a black butterfly. Jack explains that he got the tattoo in prison. He tells Paul that he needs to stop drinking, alcoholism interferes with his work. After reviewing Paul's script, Jack says there is no idea in it. He is ready to give such an idea to Paul. Let it be a story about them. A writer living in the wilderness welcomes a guy in gratitude for the fact that he saved him from reprisals from the rude chauffeur. But soon the writer begins to regret his decision. Paul writes the script. Jack reads it, throws the manuscript into the oven. It's all too simple. Let Jack be in cahoots with a trucker according to the scenario. He may still appear at the end of the story. Paul says he has a better idea. At night, Jack puts a knife to Paul's throat. He asks him to say something. In the scenario, a woman in a similar situation begs the perpetrator for mercy. It turns out that in real life it is difficult for a person to have a knife to his throat to utter a word.
Paul rummages through Jack's belongings. He discovers a set of medical knives, newspaper clippings about missing women. Jack finds his hunting rifle in Jack's shed. Paul hears gunfire and a woman screaming outside. He runs out of the house, asks Jack what he heard. He claims that he did not hear any screams. He shoots a gun, the cries of birds are heard in the forest. "You about it?" He asks Paul.
Paul and Jack are sitting at lunch. A car arrives. This messenger brought in a grocery order. Jack holds Paul at gunpoint. The messenger leaves. Paul is angry. There is a quarrel. Jack beats up Paul. Then, in his own defense, he says that strangers always make a person released from prison nervous. Jack demands from Paul to continue working on the script. At night, Paul tries to drive away from home to have a drink alone. Jack stops him, makes him break bottles of alcohol.
Laura arrives the next day. Paul tries to leave with her, but they are stopped by an armed Jack. He forces Paul and Laura to push her car into a pond, orders them to return to the house. The sheriff arrives. He asks Paul about the woman who disappeared the other day. She worked in the post office and had to deliver a package to Paul from Los Angeles. Paul says he doesn't know anything about the woman. He tries to run out of the house, as a result, Jack attacks the sheriff, makes him climb into the trunk of his car and shoots him.
Paul and Laura see Jack get into the sheriff's car and drive away from the house. They run in the direction of the forest, there is a railway, a train is to appear soon on schedule. But Laura twists her leg, they do not have time to get on the train, Jack catches up with them and again takes them to the house.
Jack tells Paul that he did not live up to the trust, violated their agreement. Paul says Jack is crazy. Jack says that if he is killed in the assault on the house, Paul will add the story. Paul asks to let go of Laura, she has a small child. A fight ensues between Jack and Paul. Jack ties Paul to a chair and leaves the room. Paul manages to free himself, he sneaks into the kitchen where Jack is. He manages to get hold of a hunting rifle. He takes Jack at gunpoint, sees Laura lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Jack invites Paul to get rid of the woman's body, then no one will guess anything. While keeping Jack at gunpoint, Paul says that he sometimes hears the voice of God. Then everything becomes clear to him. For example, he sees that the girl in the car is waiting for her boyfriend. Or he finds a housewife in the woods. Thus, Paul confesses to Jack that the murders of women are his own business. After completing the confession, Paul shoots Jack. He remains unharmed. Apparently Jack had time to replace the cartridges with blanks. Jack snatches the gun out of Paul's hands and hits him in the face with the butt.
When Paul wakes up, he sees that his house is filled with FBI agents. Trucker, Jack and "revived" Laura are FBI agents. They tracked the maniac for three years. Police use a crane to retrieve Laura's car from the pond. Cynologists with dogs work in the house. Jack interrogates Paul. He shows him physical evidence and plays the tape recording with Paul's confession. He calmly says that Jack himself planted all the evidence. And the recording presents a monologue of a character from the script he is working on. So Jack has little to no strong evidence for a jury trial. Jack invites Paul to tell where he hid the body of his wife he killed, it was she who was his first victim. Paul denies the murder of his wife. Jack sees a photograph of Paul's wife on the table, grabs her and runs out into the street. He compares the landscape behind a woman's back to what he observes with his own eyes. There is one difference: there is no pond in the photo. Jack tells Paul that he buried the body and then made a pond on top. Paul offers Jack a deal: he will tell him the details of all the crimes he has committed, and he guarantees him the preservation of his life, even if for this he will have to be declared insane and placed in a psychiatric hospital. Jack says that he is not happy with the ending of the story.
Paul is sitting in front of a typewriter in the room. The writer takes out a sheet of paper covered with the same phrase: "I'm stuck." Paul starts a new story from scratch, it is called "Black Butterfly".
Paul is a writer living in a lonely house on the outskirts. Recently, his business has not been going very well: the customer rejected his last book, and he himself tries to forget about the failures with the help of alcohol. However, the hermit's life changes dramatically when he meets a stranger helping him avoid a brawl at a roadside cafe. Learning that the stranger is traveling light, Paul invites him to stay with him for the night. The stranger suddenly takes an interest in the writer and suggests a new plot for his book. But who is he, and what does the mysterious black butterfly tattoo on his body mean.
Hence the question - is it possible there to look at something other than the game Antonio Banderas?
I confess - I have not seen the French original, so I cannot estimate how much the remake has "rolled down" in relation to the original source, but ... damn it, "Black Butterfly" is surprising! First of all, the fact that there is nothing new in it - it's all the same tomato and cucumber salad of maniacs and victims - however, with all the worn-out moves and some stereotyped characters, the performance here is at its best. In fact, we have before us a classic example of a chamber thriller, tightly tailored, with professional acting Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Reese Myers... Moreover, it should be said that both actors stand against each other - it is on the relationship between the psychopath and his hostage that the conflict of history is built.
From scene to scene, the tension grows, and the unpredictability of the characters' actions becomes the real feature of the tape. If at first events develop in a conventional art-house manner (reflections on literature and creativity, problems of a procrastinating personality) and resemble a somewhat overclocked version "Chinese coffee", then what is happening grabs a dynamic militant suspense ... just like we love. The victim wants to break free and makes mistakes, the crazy killer is trying to take control of the situation and is eager to prove the correctness of his views on the world and the creative process, while not losing in the "literary" charm ...
In short, watching is a pleasure.
Another feature of the action can be considered the "theatricality" of the production. There are very few visionary moves, the narrative with a "picture" ... and there is almost no nature as such - a few fir trees and a road going somewhere who knows where. From the scenery - an old living wreck of a desperate alcoholic writer who has lost his wife, muse, job and money. Everything is like in a theater: here is the scene, here are the actors, here is the dramatic conflict. A person who wants to write a top story turns out to be its hero himself, without leaving, so to speak, a typewriter. But who will put the final point here - the author or his heroes?
It's hard to say if this is the director's merit Brian Goodman, or the acting experience of Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Reese Myers speaks to us from the screen, but surprisingly the picture from cover to cover remains spectacular and dynamic, even taking into account the intimacy. The secondary nature of the plot fades into the background - the actors have enough skill to give their characters individuality and make them look lively, bright. It is also interesting that the atmosphere does not disappear a bit behind the drama: it is reflected in the dialogues, in the careful arrangement of the scenery, in the characters of the characters ... the viewer has no doubts that the action takes place in the wilderness, and the question of survival here is first place.
And yet, behind these unconditional advantages are hidden shadows of all those films where everything was exactly the same, only instead of a gun, there was, for example, a golf club hanging on the wall. Psychos and their hostages:, "Flower by the road", "The guy from the white river" etc. So "Black Butterfly" squeezes into their slender ranks, not adding anything new, but standing out with a solid production. It would seem that with all of the above, she would be cuckooing in this review with six points ... but no. I must say that the film has a beautifully played final twist (it is pertinent to note that not even one!), Leaving a tart aftertaste of darkness, despair and hopelessness.
