LEPIDOPTERA: BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS
Definition
- Two pairs of wings for flight, usually covered in scales (as is the body and legs), which are tiny flattened hairs that give a smooth coloured surface.
- The adult mouthparts are a long drinking straw which rolls-up under the head like a clock-spring.
- The life cycle is complete:- egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis) and then adult.
- They range from a 2 mm wing span to giants 120 mm across, even in Britain.
- Traditionally we separate butterflies from moths, but it is not simply that butterflies are day-flying and moths are the night shift, since many moths fly by day. The distinction is rather artificial, in tropical rainforests there are whole families of Lepidoptera that are not clearly butterflies or moths. .
- In general terms, butterflies at rest can hold their wings together above their back. Most moths hold their wings flat along the top of their body, but there are exceptions.
More usefully, butterfly antennae are bluntly clubbed at the end, whilst moths have thread-like antennae, sometimes fringed like a feather. Burnets moths and skipper butterflies have clubbed antennae which end in a tapering point, though confusion is unlikely.
What they do & where they live
- The caterpillars mainly eat plants, though a few can be predatory. The adults feed on nectar at flowers, or on honeydew, but some visit wet mud to drink mineral rich water.
- They occur in nearly all land habitats, and in shallow freshwater.
Number of species
- The British fauna comprises about 2,250 species that are resident, but several hundred more migrants that occur in Britain regularly or rarely. The distinction between macromoth and micromoth is traditional and artificial since there are small macromoths and rather large micromoths; it is based on moth family rather than size of a particular species.
- 55 Butterflies (plus about regular 6 migrants)
- 850 macromoths (plus about 100 migrants)
- 1,200 micromoths (plus about 100 migrants) (plus about 30 exotic species in hot-houses that cannot establish in the wild).
- Worldwide there are about 120,000 species
