June 19, 1986 - Moths and ButterfliesPage'8A /The Suffo1k,T4nes /Junef 19; 1986
Moths and Butterflies
By PAUL STOUTENBURGH
After last week's high winds and
torrential rains, my wife's sharp eyes
picked up a tattered swallowtail but-
terfly and a dead luna moth on our
lawn. The yellow swallowtail revived
itself and flew off but the beautiful
pale green luna moth reminded me of
the problems that aerial spraying had
caused in the past.
It takes a long time for some of
these "innocent bystanders" to come
back and even now after 30 years, or
more many are still missing. We
seldom see the night -flying moths,
such as the luna, but occasionally
we'll find them flying about our out-
side lights.
There's one small group of moths
that we do see flying about in the day-
time and that's the sphinx. They're
often mistaken for hummingbirds for
they have that fast and hovering
flight so characteristic of that smal-
lest of small birds.
Moth or Butterfly?
People often ask how they can tell
the difference between a moth and a
butterfly. The easiest, but as noted
above not always the truest way, is
the time you see them. Butterflies are
seen in the daytime, moths at night.
Butterflies usually have long wire-
like antennae with a little knob at
the end. Moths do not and their anten-
nae often look feather- or fern -like.
Moths spin cocoons while butterflies
metamorphose in crysalids or sac -like
structures that hang from under a
leaf or branch.
Focus on
Nature
One of the most incredible things
about this group of delicate flyers is
that some of them weigh less than a
feather and yet seem to live through
some of the most severe weather.
It is said that mating males can lo-
cate a female from a distance of over
a mile. Their scent glands are super-
sensitive to an odor the females give
off. Experiments with captured
females have proven this theory of at-
traction time and again.
The beautiful colors we see on the
butterflies and moths are not always
colors derived from pigments. Be-
cause of their scaly structure, some-
thing like shingles on a house, the
colors are often seen in iridescent
hues. The light that falls on these
scales is split up into colors and
shades that we associate with these
beautiful creatures.
Many of our butterflies have big
eye spots on their wings. These are
thought to protect them from pre-
dators. Others have colors and pat-
terns that blend with leaves, barks of
trees and even bird droppings. It's
thought that in their early evolution,
moths and butterflies were covered
with hairs but since scales would
allow them easier escape from the
deadly spider webs they encountered,
.r — , Jr
•
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY --Butterflies and moths, like so much
of our natural heritage, are having a difficult time in man's ever -en-
croaching world. Not only do misused pesticides take their toll, but the
loss of habitat is seriously limiting their range.
they evolved and helped them survive
through the ages.
Ugly to Beautiful
It seems odd that anything so deli-
cate and beautiful as a butterfly or
moth could come from something as
bizarre - looking as a caterpillar. Here,
in miniature, are the horror demons
of what seems like another world.
Some even have poisonous spines to
ward off their enemy. The shape and
variety of these caterpillars are unbe-
lievable but all must pass through
this caterpillar stage before becoming
adults.
It's in the adult or butterfly stage
that mating takes place, and in most
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species this is the only function of the
adult male before he dies, his job com-
plete. The female does the same after
laying her eggs that will carry on the
species the following year.
Perhaps the luna moth that Bar-
bara found had already mated and
this was the natural course for him to
take. With so few moths and but-
terflies about, it would be a shame to
have a storm do them in without hav-
ing a chance to perpetuate their
species.
As for the swallowtail butterfly, it
took off with tattered wings. It will
complete its cycle and hopefully next
year we will once again see their vi-
brant yellow and black dancing forms
in the sun among our hickory trees.
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P.O. Box 605
Phwe:1516) 722.3944
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