(There are plenty of exceptions, however!) Coloration varies greatly, but many butterflies are more colorful than average moths.(The larvae of several kinds of moths are agricultural and other pests.) The larvae (caterpillars) of butterflies are rarely considered destructive pests, although there are exceptions.Butterflies often have relatively thinner bodies than moths, though members of the skipper family of butterflies have thicker, mothlike bodies.(Most moths are nocturnal, but there are exceptions.) Some species are most active at dusk and dawn. When does it fly? Butterflies are usually active during daylight hours.(Some species may use silk to fold a leaf together, then enter metamorphosis in the tentlike shelter.) (Moth pupae are often wrapped in a silk cocoon, frequently are positioned in leaf litter, and the cocoons often incorporate bits of leaves, twigs, etc.) During metamorphosis, the chrysalis of butterflies is usually attached to a plant or other object, and it is not enclosed in a cocoon.(There are exceptions, but moths typically fold their wings over their body like a tent, or hold them flat but swept back at an angle to the body, looking triangular from above.) The typical wing position, when perched, is either straight out to the sides (“wings open”), or the wings are held together, straight up over the body.(Meanwhile, moths’ antennae are filaments with no club tip, or else they are shaped like feathers.) In the skipper family of butterflies, the antennae tips are also hooked. Antennae, in butterflies, are filaments tipped with a club.Most of us have a general idea of what a butterfly looks like, but to be certain, note the following characteristics: The scales can be brightly colored, or they can be drab.Ībout 700 species of butterflies (including the skippers) occur in North America north of Mexico. These seem like dust when they rub off onto your fingers. Like moths, they have tiny, overlapping scales on their wings. All of them are various types of moths, except for one: superfamily Papilionoidea, which comprises the butterflies and skippers. In North America, the Lepidoptera - the insect order comprising all the moths and butterflies - contains more than 30 superfamilies.
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