How does a butterfly taste food?
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Butterflies don’t have tongues, they have a proboscis which many people think of as a tongue but it’s more like having your mouth extended into a long tube. They do have some taste buds on their proboscis and some on their antennae as well, but most of the taste buds are focused on their feet.
Butterflies taste their food with their feet, which have chemoreceptors attached to neurons that can detect the molecules that are edible and those that are not.
To eat, a butterfly unwinds a long, skinny part of its body called a proboscis, and sucks up liquids like nectars and juices. It works for nutrients. The insect will step on its food to sense dissolving sugars. Even more importantly, a female butterfly will use her feet to drum on a plant and “taste” its juices. This helps her decide if the leaf would be a edible to a caterpillar, and therefore, if she has found a suitable place to lay eggs.
Butterflies are also unique because they don’t eat the way we do. They do not bite or chew.