Just a quick one tonight, lovelies. If you've ever seen a winged insect and wondered if it was a moth or a butterfly, then boy, is this the post for you!
There are many different varieties of butterflies and moths, so it can be a bit hard to tell. But here are a few easy ways:
Butterflies are active during the day, moths are active at night. This seems like a "Duh," but it's true.
Butterflies most often rest with their wings up, moths with their wings open. Butterflies will open their wings when sunning-- being cold-blooded, they can take in extra heat from the increased surface area of their open wings. But they still often have them canted slightly upward. A moth's open wings will lie flat.
Moths are fuzzy. Moths have fuzzy antennae and bodies. Butterflies are smooth in both places.
Butterflies tend to be more brightly colored, moths tend to be more muted. This makes sense when taken with their most active time of day. Darker, duller colors make it easier to blend in at night, and brighter colors aren't really visible in the dark, so why bother? Butterflies have a few reasons for being brightly colored-- self-species identification, poison advertisement, poison mimicry. Of course, there are both brightly colored moths and dull colored butterflies. But for the most part, this rule holds.
There you go! This isn't everything, but it's a good start.
Go. Identify. Be happy.
No comments:
Post a Comment