Usually the bigger butterfly wins the mating game, just as they win battles between male butterflies. In scientific circles, this is sometimes referred to as pupa rape.

Each day, hundreds of butterflies and pupae are shipped out by overnight mail. Individual butterflies--about $5 each--are packed into glassine envelopes with an ice pack to slow down their metabolism.

A cocoon is distinct from both a pupa and chrysalis. It is a hard, silk shell that a moth larva weaves around itself before it enters the pupa stage of metamorphosis.

This spring, researchers successfully reared some 400 caterpillars of the rare frosted elfin butterfly and released more than half into the wild in their historic North Florida range.