Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of wood engraving illustrations
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Living with change
- 2 A short dose of Earth history
- 3 Climate change
- 4 Down on the farm and into the woods
- 5 Plant and animal introductions (and some recent arrivals)
- 6 Our overcrowded isles: human population and aspiration
- 7 Fresh water: quality and availability
- 8 Hunting, shooting and fishing: the enigma of field sports and wildlife
- 9 Wildlife conservation at home and overseas
- So how is our wildlife faring? The details
- 10 Mammals
- 11 Birds
- 12 Amphibians and reptiles
- 13 Freshwater fish
- 14 Butterflies and moths
- 15 Other insects
- 16 Other invertebrates
- 17 Trees, shrubs, herbs and other plants
- 18 Fungi
- 19 Life in the open sea
- 20 Where sea meets land
- 21 Top wildlife sites in Britain and Ireland
- 22 What does the future hold?
- Glossary and abbreviations
- Notes
- Index
- Plate section
14 - Butterflies and moths
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2015
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of wood engraving illustrations
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Living with change
- 2 A short dose of Earth history
- 3 Climate change
- 4 Down on the farm and into the woods
- 5 Plant and animal introductions (and some recent arrivals)
- 6 Our overcrowded isles: human population and aspiration
- 7 Fresh water: quality and availability
- 8 Hunting, shooting and fishing: the enigma of field sports and wildlife
- 9 Wildlife conservation at home and overseas
- So how is our wildlife faring? The details
- 10 Mammals
- 11 Birds
- 12 Amphibians and reptiles
- 13 Freshwater fish
- 14 Butterflies and moths
- 15 Other insects
- 16 Other invertebrates
- 17 Trees, shrubs, herbs and other plants
- 18 Fungi
- 19 Life in the open sea
- 20 Where sea meets land
- 21 Top wildlife sites in Britain and Ireland
- 22 What does the future hold?
- Glossary and abbreviations
- Notes
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
To many people these insects are like two sides of a coin – butterflies are gay and bright, creatures of sunny days with elegant flight, while moths elicit thoughts of clothes moths and large, clumsy brown insects that blunder into our lighted homes at night. Both of these groups of insects belong to the same order of insects called Lepidoptera, literally ‘scaly winged’, since the patterns on their wings are the result of a covering of tiny scales which easily brush off on our fingers if we handle the insects. Many moths are far from conforming to the drab popular image, and indeed some brightly coloured ones such as scarlet tigers, cinnabar and burnet moths fly preferentially by day.
The two groups are in general easily distinguished, since all butterflies fly by day and most moths at night. Butterflies also fold their wings in an upright formation when at rest (except skipper butterflies), whereas most moths fold them down over the body like a low tent. One little detail which is a fairly reliable diagnostic feature is that butterflies have clubs at the end of their antennae while most moths do not. A further difference that is hard to see is that moths have fore and hind wings linked by a hook, but this does not occur in butterflies.
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- Information
- A Less Green and Pleasant LandOur Threatened Wildlife, pp. 206 - 230Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015