Bobby Rosenbaum, age 11, of Sarasota, Florida, for his question:
How do moths differ from butterflies?
Right now, all but a couple of the moths and butterflies are disguised as eggs or sleeping pupas. The gorgeous green lung moth is concealed in a rough, chunky brown cocoon. The glamorous tiger swallowtail butterfly may be a tiny egg or a chrysalis that looks like a furled leaf. Most of the moths prefer to spend the lava stage in silken cocoons but the butterflies pupate in chrysalis shells. Other noticeable differences appear when the pupas hatch and become winged adults.
The moths and butterflies are classed in the order Lepidoptera, meaning the scaly winged ones. Without a doubt, they are the reigning beauties of the insect world. Their scales are dusty particles that add the velvety texture to their two pairs of wide, flowery wings. There are major differences between moths and butterflies including subtle differences in their tiny scales.
Under the microscope, the dusty powder on the wings looks somewhat like mini leaves. A scale from a butterfly wing is a long oblong with a small button at one narrow end and one or two notches in the opposite end. A moth scale may look like a slim saber, a small leaf with a notch at the tip or a small, wider leaf with several spikes and notches. These fine details are not obvious because the scales are too small to be studied without a fairly strong microscope.
We can, however, distinguish other differences with no more than a quick glance. The average butterfly tends to be a very slender, elegant creature. The average moth tends to be fatter and fuzzier. When the moth settles, she rests with her fuzzy wings spread out flat. The butterfly lifts her wings and gracefully folds them together over her back. The time also may give us a clue. For butterflies are busy during the daytime and the moths tend to be creatures of the shadowy night.
These general clues help us to distinguish the moths from the butterflies and there are more precise details to make sure. One sure test is the pair of feelers, or antennas, on the insect's head. Butterfly antennas are long slim stems, tipped with slight bulges. Fuzzy moth antennas have fine feathery fringes that taper at both ends.
The life cycle of all Lepidoptera goes through the same four stages, but each species has its special type of egg, caterpillar, pupa and winged adult. In most cases, a moth spends the pupa stage in a silken cocoon. A butterfly cannot spin silk and spends the pupa stage in a crisp chrysalis.
Usually we can detect differences in the eggs of moths and butterflies. A butterfly tends to lay her eggs one at a time or in small groups and she leaves them unprotected. A moth tends to lay a large group of eggs and chances are she folds them in a cozy blanket, made from tiny scales and fuzzy hairs from her body.