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Dennis Kunkel's Microscopic World 2001 Calendar

Butterfly proboscises are slender, tubular feeding structures. Culminating in a sharp, beak-like tip, the proboscis works like a straw through which a butterfly drinks its food. When a butterfly finds food, it first unfurls its mouthparts and then zips them together to form a channel. The proboscis is particularly well adapted for reaching into flowers for nectar and for piercing fruit with its sharp tip. When a butterfly is not feeding, it keeps its proboscis curled between its palpi (which are a pair of organs located on the front of an adult butterfly face).