By: Reba Kocher
Listen to this blog post here: Moth__Butterflies._the_difference_is_night__day.mp3
To celebrate our upcoming Butterfly Enclosure Exhibition (June 25-June 30), each week we will have a blog post about a new kind of butterfly or moth! We also want to post some weekly butterfly social media facts. So please keep an eye out on our Facebook and Instagram pages for some awesome posts!
To kick off the week, we are going to answer a question that we get a lot. What is the difference between moths and butterflies?
But before we get right into the differences, I think it is important to know about their similarities. Butterflies and moths both belong to the order Lepidoptera, and within this order, there are 170,000 species worldwide--making it the second largest order of insects behind Coleoptera (beetles)! Both moths and butterflies have two pairs of wings covered in overlapping layers of fine scales. They also eat the same way by uncoiling their proboscis (feeding-tube) and sucking nutrients from flowers and puddles. When not in they aren’t feeding, the proboscis gets wrapped around their head. They also share the same four stage of their life cycle: eggs, caterpillars, pupae, and adulthood. Read more about their life cycle here: http://www.butterflyschool.org/new/meta.html
Now.. the differences. It’s easier than you think!
Moths
- Active at night
- Most are dull colored
- Stout body
- Rests wings folded, tent-like, over its back
- Antennae are usually thicker and often feathery
Butterflies
- Active by day
- Brightly colored
- Thin body
- Rests wings held back erect over body
- Antennae are thin and thickened at the tip
This is a Polyphemus Moth, which can be found in Ohio. You can tell it is a moth because: the body is thick, the antennae is feathery, and the color is a dull brown color.
This is a Monarch Butterfly, which you will start seeing in Ohio really soon! If you didn't recognize this Monarch as a butterfly, a few indicators would be: the slender body, the thin antennae that get thicker at the tip, and its bright orange and white colors.
Now that you are all experts at telling the difference between moths and butterflies, go outside and see what you can find! If you find some really cool ones, post it to your social media account and tag us! We love seeing your photos! Participate in our social media game this week: "Is this a moth or a butterfly". And once June 25 rolls around, bring your friends and family to the Butterfly Enclosure Exhibition. We hope you will be there!
References & Further Reading
https://www.livescience.com/34472-difference-between-moth-butterfly.html
https://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/butterflymoth.html