Michelle Dufour, age 7, of Morann, Pa., for her question:
HOW DID THE BUTTERFLY GET ITS NAME?
We aren't exactly sure how the butterfly received its name. But some experts say the name came about because so many butterflies have the bright yellow color of butter. Scientists classify butterflies and moths together in the order Lepidoptera. There are more than 90,000 different kinds of butterflies and moths on Earth.
The scientific name Lepidoptera comes from two Greek words: lepidos, meaning scale, and pteron, meaning wing. This name was given to the butterfly because of the thousands of dustlike scales that cover its two pairs of wings. Almost everybody agrees that the beautiful and graceful butterfly is the most handsome of all the insects. Why shouldn't it also have a beautiful sounding name? Poets seem to go overboard with compliments for the colorful butterfly.
They have called them "winged flowers" and "flying gems." Sometimes it is a bit hard to believe that the beautiful butterfly was once a wormlike caterpillar. Caterpillars hatch from the eggs of butterflies, and later turn into butterflies. Caterpillars eat the leaves of trees and plants and also can destroy or harm crops. Butterflies, on the other hand, do no harm, because they cannot bite or chew. And as they fly from flower to flower, drinking nectar, they make it possible for the flowers to develop into fruits and seeds by carrying pollen from one to another.
Butterflies can be found in all parts of the world. You'll find them near the North and South poles, in hot forests near the equator and also in deserts as well as temperate spots. Some kinds of butterflies live only a few weeks, while others may live nearly a year.
Largest of all the world's butterflies is Queen Alexandra from New Guinea, with an 11 inch wingspread. There are many types with wingspreads of only three eighths of an inch.
There are four ways to tell a butterfly from a moth. First of all, most butterflies fly only during the day, while most moths fly at dusk or even at night. Second, most butterflies fold their wings straight up over their bodies, while moths rest with their wings spread flat.
The third way to tell the difference between the butterfly and the moth is that all butterflies have bare knobs at the end of both feelers, or antennae. But the antennae of most moths are either hairlike or plumy and end in a point. Finally, most butterflies have thin bodies, but the bodies of most moths are plump.
Artists love the butterfly and use designs of his wings in jewelry, pictures and other art objects. Lampshades and screens are sometimes decorated by putting butterflies between layers of thin paper or plastic.