While mammals and birds are often captured falling asleep, it's perhaps a trickier challenge to discover whether butterflies and other insects do the same.
Many butterflies (and other insects) spend long periods doing something that looks a lot like sleep.
As day-fliers, butterflies tend to spend the night motionless and unresponsive. Some, such as the monarch in North America and the small tortoiseshell, peacock and comma in Europe, pass entire winters in this state.
- What is sleep and why do animals need to sleep?
- Which animal sleeps the most?
- Torpor: what it is, why it's important and how torpor differs to hibernation and sleep
Do butterflies sleep?
It's unclear whether butterflies actually sleep but there is evidence that some insects need ‘sleep’ to function well – in a similar way that is recognised in other animal species. Sleep-deprived fruit flies have impaired learning abilities, for example.