|
1. What are butterflies and moths?
2. How many kinds of butterflies and moths exist?
3. What is the difference between butterflies and moths?
4. Are there endangered butterflies and moths?
5. Are butterflies poisonous?
6. Which butterflies are poisonous?
7. Why are butterflies and moths such good insects? Why does everyone love them?
8. How did butterflies get their name? Why are they called "butterflies"?
9. How do I identify a caterpillar?
10. How much do butterflies weigh?
11. How long do butterflies live?
12. Do butterflies have brains and hearts?
13. Are butterflies pollinators?
14. Where can I find out more about butterflies and moths?
Did you find the answer to your question?
If not, read through all of the Frequently Asked Questions before submitting a question.
Answers to General Questions 1. What are butterflies and moths? Butterflies and moths are a group of insects called Lepidoptera. Like all insects, butterflies and moths have a head, thorax, abdomen, two antennae, and six legs. Additionally, moths and butterflies have four wings that are almost always covered by colored scales, and a coiled proboscis for drinking liquids such as flower nectar. Lepidoptera is derived from the Latin "lepido"= scale + "ptera" = wing. Of course there are exceptions; some moths have wingless adults and some primitive moths lack a proboscis. 2. How many kinds of butterflies and moths exist? Butterflies and moths are found on all continents except Antarctica, and scientists estimate that there are approximately 12-15,000 species of butterflies and 150-250,000 species of moths. There are still thousands of moth and butterfly species that have not been found or described by scientists. In the United States and Canada, more than 750 species of butterflies and 11,000 species of moths have been recorded. Many species of moths and a few kinds of butterflies are still being discovered. There is much to be learned. 3. What is the difference between butterflies and moths? Butterflies are mostly brightly colored day-flying insects with long clubbed antennae and most moths fly at night and lack clubs at the end of their antennae. A group of tropical "moths" has been found that are closely related to butterflies but they lack clubs on their antennae; they are now considered to be butterflies. Perhaps the best answer that matches our current knowledge is just to say that butterflies are "fancy moths." 4. Are there endangered butterflies and moths? There are more than 20 butterflies and moths listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Most of these species are found in the United States and may become extinct due to loss of their habitat. Some butterflies from other countries, such as some rare birdwing butterflies from New Guinea, are endangered by loss of habitat and by collection of specimens for international trade. Several individual states list and protect declining butterflies and moths in their state. Contact your local wildlife or conservation office to find out what you can do to conserve butterflies and moths. 5. Are butterflies poisonous? Some butterflies such as the Monarch and Pipevine Swallowtail eat poisonous plants as caterpillars and are poisonous themselves as adult butterflies. Birds learn not to eat them. Other good-tasting butterflies (called "mimics") come to resemble them and thus benefit from this "umbrella" of protection. 6. Which butterflies are poisonous? No butterflies are so poisonous that they kill people or large animals, but there is an African moth whose caterpillar's fluids are used to poison the tips of arrows. When shot by one of these arrows an antelope can be killed in short order (see recent National Geographic). Other butterflies whose caterpillars eat poisonous plants such as milkweeds, pipevines, and passion vines, are distasteful and can cause birds who eat them to vomit or spit them out--never to try another. 7. Why are butterflies and moths such good insects? Why does everyone love them? I can only answer for myself, not everybody! But my guess is that butterflies are obvious bright-colored objects in our environment. They are believed to be free spirits in their flight and lack on constraints. They are also thought of as harmless, innocent creatures. 8. How did butterflies get their name? Why are they called "butterflies"? No one knows for sure, since the word has been in the English language for centuries (the word was "buterfleoge" in Old English, which means butterfly in our English today). Because it is such an old word, we don't really know who or when someone said "That 'thing' over there is a 'butterfly'." One story is that they were named so because it was thought that butterflies, or witches that took on the shape of butterflies, stole milk and butter. (Someone else wondered if the word was really meant to be "flutter-by" <smile>). In other languages, the word for our fluttery friends has no such derivation as "butter" + "fly". One can only speculate on why the English language uses such an unlikely name. 9. How do I identify a caterpillar? The only readily available books are the Peterson First Guide to Caterpillars by Amy Wright published by Houghton Mifflin, and the Golden guide to Butterflies and Moths by Robert T. Mitchell. There are some photos of caterpillars on the Butterflies and Moths of North America web site. There are thousands of kinds of moths and over 700 kinds of butterflies in North America and only a few of the caterpillars are illustrated in these sources. 10. How much do butterflies weigh? I have some information on butterfly weights but not exact weights for the largest and smallest butterflies. However, I can make pretty good guesses. I have weights ranging from 0.3 gram for a large swallowtail to 0.04 gram for a small butterfly called the elf. My guess is that the female Queen Victoria Birdwing, the world's largest butterfly, would weigh 2 or 3 grams and one of the World's smallest butterflies, the Pygmy Blue, would weigh only a few thousandths of a gram. 11. How long do butterflies live? Different butterfly species have different adult potential life spans. By marking butterflies then recapturing or sighting them later scientists gain information on how long butterflies can live. An average butterfly species has an adult life span of 2 weeks or less. For example one butterfly studied in Costa Rica had a life expectancy of about 2 days, and live 10 days at the most. No adult butterfly can live more than a year. The Mourning Cloak adult and some related tortoiseshells and anglewings that hatch in early summer may live almost a year. It over winters as an adult and then waits to court, mate and lay eggs the following spring or early summer. Monarchs and Swallowtails may live about a month in the summer, but the Monarchs that migrate to Mexico or the California coast may live up to 6 months. Some long-lived tropical butterflies live up to 6 months as adults. The long-life champion is a tiny yucca moth that feeds on Banana Yucca (Yucca baccata). Dr. Jerry Powell of the University of California at Berkeley has found this moth's caterpillar may be able to wait up until 30 years to form a pupa and emerge as an adult. 12. Do butterflies have brains and hearts? Yes butterflies and all other insects have both a brain and a heart. The center of a butterfly's nervous system is the subesophageal ganglion and is located in the insect's thorax, not its head. The butterfly has a long chambered heart that runs the length of its body on the upper side. It pumps hemolymph (it lacks the red color of blood) from the rear of the insect forward to bathe its internal organs. It has other functions similar to our blood. 13. Are butterflies pollinators? Actually, most butterflies are not good pollinators of flowers. Pollen does not regularly stick to their legs or tongue (proboscis) and the butterflies do not make proper contact with the flower's stigma. There are probably some notable exceptions to this such as the pollinia (a coherent mass of pollen grains often with a stalk bearing an adhesive disk that clings to insects) of the milkweed flowers sticking to the tongue and legs of Monarch butterflies. 14. Where can I find out more about butterflies and moths? I don't think there is too much on the web about Lepidoptera that would give you a basic view of the group outside our Web site. There is nothing now on the group as a whole. If you want an introduction try the introduction to Covell's Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Moths or the introductory chapters to my Field Guide to Eastern Butterflies. More inclusive would be the introduction to my book Butterflies East of the Great Plains. The very best now would be Malcolm Scoble's book Lepidoptera.
| 
