Donna Dawes, age 12, of Williamsport,, Penn., for her question:
How can you tell moths from butterflies?
Summer is here and the warm sunny air is suddenly populated with hosts of insects. Some annoy us, others fill us with admiration and all of them make us curious. There are thousands of different bugs zooming and fluttering through the summer air. Some of you wish old Andy to identify this one or that one and send him carefully wrapped specimens. Andy is sorry that he cannot attend to these items individually. But, as you know, he can answer questions only in his column. So, this is really a hint. Please do not send any more bugs.
Most beautiful of the insects are the butterflies and the moths, Both belong to the insect order Lepidoptera ‑ the scaly‑winged onus. Under the microscope, their downy wings are seen to be covered with little scales. These so‑called scales are tiny crystal pinnacles which refract or bend the light to give the butterfly wing its handsome coloring.
The butterflies and moths all have two pairs of downy wings and mouths built for sucking juices. They all grow up in four stages. The Mama lays a clutch of little eggs. The eggs hatch into hungry caterpillars. The caterpillars go into a sleeping stage, either as cocoons or chrysalises. The adult winged insect wakes up and breaks forth from the sleeping pupa stage.
In North America there are about 7,000 different moths and butterflies. These are classed in 75 moth families and five butterfly families. Every member of these families has an individual and fascinating life story of its own. As a collector, you learn these details for yourself. There are, however, a few general rules by which you can learn to tell the moths from the butterflies.
The first clue depends upon the tune of day you find your specimen. Butterflies prefer the sunny hours and we find them flying around in the daytime. Moths prefer the softer light of evening and of moonbeams. We often find them fluttering around in the dead of night.
Another clue is to watch a glamorous Lepidoptera as he settles. A butterfly puts his lovely wins together, gently folded straight above his back. A moth rests with his downy wings out flat at his sides.
Ii third clue is a little harder to detect and you may need a magnifying glass to find it. Both the moth and the butterfly wear antennae, a pair of sensitive feelers poking up from the head. But the moths antennae are somewhat different from those of the butterfly.
You do not need a lens to see that the butterfly’s antennae are slender and maybe end in small knobs. You can also see that the moth's. antennae are thick and furry. The magnifying glass shows that the butterfly wears a pair of slim curved feelers. The moth wears a pair of feathery feelers, gracefully tapered at each end.
So, if your specimen is a night flyer, rests with wings outspread and has a pair of feathery feelers, he is a math. If he flies by day, rests with wings together and wears slender feelers, he is a butterfly,