How do butterflies fly??

[Robin]

Hi,
I have tried to find an answer to this on the web, but haven't found a satisfactory answer. When you look at a bird the body/wing proportions and the musculature all look reasonable for flying. But to my mind a butterfly does not. The relative sizes of the wings versus body look as though any wing flapping would cause the body to go up and down with little resulting forward movement. Also there seems to be so little space for any muscles to get enough leverage to make the wigs flap.
And finally where do they get the energy to fly for so long without stopping? I know, nectar, but their body chemistry must be fantastically efficient.
Anybody know where I can find some answers?
Thanks
Robin

[Cotswold Cockney]

Butterfly flight has been filmed and freeze-frame shows exactly how they work. A more specific search may turn something up for you.

In many ways not disimilar to birds and other flyers. The wings do a lot more than merely flap. They are angled, flexed, overlapped, flattened or stretched so take advantage of using the air to fly almost in any direction.

The thorax is a gearbox of powerful muscles mainly devoted to operating those wings. During flight, those muscles generate much heat from the activity involved with flying. This is particularly true with moths. I once picked up a Death's Head Hawk Moth which had been hovering in a powerfully controlled fashion in it's relatively small flight cage. Picking it up between finger and thumb on either side the thorax when it finally settled, I was amazed to feel and discover just how HOT, not warm, to touch that thorax was. Truly amazing!