8 Differences Between Butterflies and Moths

Australian Butterfly Sanctuary ^ | July 11, 2019 | I wish I knew.

[kawhill]

What are the differences between butterflies and moths?

Although both of these fluttering insects come under the classification Lepidoptera, they possess many differences that classify them as a butterfly or a moth.

[Billthedrill]

Butterflies are made of butter. You wouldn’t want to spread a moth on your cornbread, would you?

[Omnivore-Dan]

Why a butterfly vs. a flutterby?

[BradyLS]

Wow! Cool! Thanks for posting those!

Io moths are pretty cool, too, and just as big. Females are a rich brown. But males are yellow and purple with big eye-spots.

[PeterPrinciple]

https://grammarphobia.com/blog/2008/02/butterfly.html

A: We’re sorry to disappoint you, but “butterfly” is as old as English words come. In written use it goes back to about the year 700, when Anglo-Saxons were speaking Old English.

......

The dictionary notes the use in Dutch of “boterschijte, lit. ‘butter shit,’ which has led to the (improbable) suggestion that the insect was so called on account of the (supposed) appearance of its excrement.”

[BradyLS]

I remember seeing Imperial and Prometheus moths, too.

[NorthMountain]

Let us not forget the Bread-and-Butter-Fly from "Through the Looking Glass":

[tumblindice]

You can catch both with an electric ‘flyswatter’.

[Flycatcher]

I love those false eye spots on the Polyphemus moth.

In the bird world, Pygmy-owls have them too on the back of their head.

[Olog-hai]

The two main differences that I learned about when young is antenna shape and flight behavior. Butterfly antennae are straight with a knob at the end and they fly in a sort of dancing way; moth antennae look like feathers and they fly in a more direct or straight sort of way.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Fascinating! Thanks for posting this.

[No name given]

Correct.

[Bob434]

moths lay eggs in your ears, which migrate to your brain, and hatch, and work their way out your eyes and drop onto your clothes and eat the fabric whiel you sleep-

[null and void]

Butterly man:

[null and void]

In my 7 decades this go around, I’ve only seen one Luna moth in the wild...

[nickcarraway]

Isn’t the word for both Mariposa in Spanish?

[nickcarraway]

They just need to try harder.

[PghBaldy]

(1). Butterflies are Free!

[mairdie]

Butterflies - Joseph Blanchard
https://youtu.be/kVOgZYVCS0k

[Kenny500c]

Watch the cloth, moth.

[Texas Eagle]

Nobody ever sang a song about moths.

Omygosh. Why do I have this sinking feeling that somebody is going to prove me wrong.