Butterflies belong to which animal phylum?

Option 4 : Arthropoda

The correct answer is Arthropoda.

Explanation: Butterflies belong to the largest phylum of the animal kingdom i.e Arthropoda.

Arthropoda:

• Arthropods have hard, external shells called “exoskeletons,” segmented bodies, and jointed legs.
• Some familiar examples are prawns, butterflies, houseflies, spiders, scorpions, and crabs.
• They exhibit an organ-system level of organization.
• They are bilaterally symmetrical, triploblastic, segmented and coelomate The coelomic cavity is blood-filled.
• The body of arthropods is covered by chitinous The body consists of head, thorax, and abdomen.
• There is an open circulatory system, and so the blood does not flow in well-defined blood vessels.
• Respiratory organs are gills, book gills, book lungs, or tracheal system.
• Sensory organs like antennae, eyes (compound and simple), statocysts, or balance organs are present.
• Excretion takes place through malpighian tubules.

About other options:

Chordata:

• Animals belonging to phylum Chordata are fundamentally characterized by the presence of a notochord, a dorsal hollow nerve cord, and paired pharyngeal gill slits.
• They are bilaterally symmetrical, triploblastic, coelomate with the organ-system level of organization.
• Phylum Chordata is divided into three subphyla: Urochordata or Tunicata, Cephalochordata, and Vertebrata.
• Examples: Urochordata – Ascidia, Salpa, Doliolum; Cephalochordata – Amphioxus or Lancelet.

Annelida:

• Annelida are aquatic or terrestrial, free-living, and sometimes parasitic.
• They are coelomate. This allows true organs to be packaged in the body structure.
• They are bilaterally symmetric and triploblastic.
• Examples: Nereis - Hirudinaria.

Bryozoa:

• They are entirely aquatic animals that feed by filtering food particles out of water.
• Bilaterally symmetrical.
• The body has more than two cell layers, tissue, and organs.
• Has no excretory and circulatory system.
• Reproduction is sexual and gonochoristic.