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The
Diversity of The World of Life
True
Insects (Insecta)
Moths, Skippers, &
Butterflies
&
Their Caterpillars
(Lepidoptera)
Representatives
Moths
& Butterflies
Skippers
Caterpillars
Biology
APPROXIMATE NUMBER OF KNOWN SPECIES WORLDWIDE
Over 100,000
DESCRIPTION
Moths and their kin are usually medium- to large-sized insects.
The antennae are long and slender. The mouthparts are a
characteristically coiled tube, typically used for sucking nectar. The two pairs of wings, almost always present, are membranous
but characteristically covered with tiny, overlapping scales, often in a mosaic
pattern of beautiful or drab and camouflaging colors; and the forewings
are a little larger than the hind.
Moths -- which almost always fly at night (except for some
wasp-like species, with nearly transparent wings) -- have a stout, very
hairy body; usually threadlike or feathery antennae; and wings held
rooflike over the body at rest.
Skippers -- which usually fly during the day -- have a
stout, not very hairy body; antennae with hooked tips; and forewings help
upright over the body but hindwings held nearly flat at rest.
Butterflies -- which usually fly during the day -- have a
thin, not very hairy body; antennae knobbed at the tip; and wings usually
held upright over the body at rest.
METAMORPHOSIS
The larvae are usually called caterpillars (A few larvae
are like the maggots of flies).
Caterpillars bear five or fewer pairs of fleshy "prolegs" on
the abdomen. Many
species of caterpillars are covered with hairs, which in
some species are stinging. Many
caterpillars stink for defense. Caterpillars can produce silk, which they use to make shelters for
themselves or cocoons for their pupae (However, most butterflies have a
naked pupa, a "chrysalis", not enclosed within a cocoon).
Many female moths put-out a wind-blown
"pheromone" (hormonal perfume), which attracts males of the
appropriate species, even a mile or more away.
Wing markings -- often on colorful hindwings hidden by
camouflaging forewings -- help identify potential mates of the same
species to one another.
HABITATS
Most caterpillars are found on leaves; a few, in plants (as
in swollen galls on plants); and some, indoors (as in foodstuffs).
Most adult moths, skippers, and butterflies visit flowers
or hide on bark.
Great groups of the Monarch butterfly
migrate for over a thousand miles towards the Tropics in the fall, to
escape harsh winter weather in the Temperate Zone, and then make the
return trip, back north, the following spring. As if that feat of
global navigation were not astounding enough, the individual butterflies
that return to the northern locales are actually the children of those who
had been there the previous summer; and those who later return south are
the great-grandchildren of those who had stayed there the previous
winter: Year after year, each of these groups successfully makes its
way to a faraway destination that it has never seen before!
FOODS
Caterpillars almost always feed on or in plant parts.
A
very few feed on other insects, such as aphids.
Typically, the adults uncoil their mouthparts to feed on such
liquids as flower nectar, although some do not feed at all (and some very
rare moths, in Tibet I believe, actually feed on blood).
DAMAGES/BENEFITS
Many caterpillars (such as corn earworms or corn borers) chew
on or in the shoots
of many crop plants, some (such as the larvae of the monarch butterfly)
feed on such weeds as milkweed, some (such as meal moth larvae) feed in
stored foods, a few (such as clothes moth larvae) feed on fabrics,
the silkworm produces the valuable silk of commerce, a very few (such as
the larvae of some harvester butterflies) feed on such insect pests as
aphids, and some (such as the larvae of some tussock moths) have painfully
stinging hairs.
By visiting flowers, adult moths, skippers, and butterflies
pollinate many commercially valuable plants, many wildflowers, and
many weeds.
True
Insects (Insecta)
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