Nancy Brooks, age 12, of Jackson, Miss., for her question:

Is a moth a butterfly?

Butterflies and moths all belong in the insect order Lepidoptera  the scaly winged ones. The microscope shows that the velvet of their wings is actually miniature scales. This large group is subdivided into some 80 families each with slight variations. Five of the families are butterflies, the rest moths.

The scales of a butterfly wing are long, flat oblongs. The moth scales talxs on various shapes. Butterfly antennae are slim and knobbed at the ends. Moth antennae are fringed with fuzz and tapered at each end. A butterfly is usually a daytime flyer and it rests with wings folded tip to tip, The moth is usually a night time flyer and it rests with wings outspread.