What is a Moth?

2. What is a Moth? A presentation for National Moth Week By Deborah Lievens

3. What is a Moth? It’s an Arthropod an invertebrate animal with an exoskeleton a segmented body jointed appendages

4. MOTHS are Insects (Class Insecta) - 3 body regions, 3 pairs of legs on the thorax, 2 pairs of wings and 1 pair of antennae

5. MOTHs are in order Lepidoptera having: • 4 membranous wings covered with scales made of chitin

6. a long coiled proboscis for sucking liquid food

7. - a caterpillar-like larval form and - it undergoes complete metamorphosis: egg, larva, pupa (chrysalis in butterflies), adult

8. An important difference between moths and butterflies is in the antennae clubbed Harris’s Checkerspot not clubbed Painted Lichen Moth

9. Kinds of Moth Antennae Pectinate Filiform Bipectinate

10. So maybe moths are night flying butterflies and butterflies are day flying moths. The French and Spanish have only one word: Papillion and Mariposa Hodges system gives numbers to all moths in North America north of Mexico and butterflies are in the middle between microlepidoptera and macrolepidoptera.

11. Microlepidoptera: • tend to be small, concealed feeders: leaf miners, borers, leaf rollers, or creators of plant galls • very host specific • usually fly at night • primitive (as in early in the development of Lepidoptera) or “primitive macros” • Wings held flat or tented • Antennae filiform

12. Butterflies: • Usually day flyers • Hold wings closed over bodies, mostly • Antennae clubbed

13. Macrolepidoptera • Usually night flyers • Wings held flat or tented (exceptions) • Antennae filiform or pectinate • External feeders • Feeding habits are general

14. Moths come in ALL sizes Chinkapin Leaf-miner Moth 5 mm Swammerdamia 7 mm Rothschildia Silkmoth probably 12-13 cm Ecuador Unknown Micro 3 mm Scientists estimate there are 150,000 to more than 500,000 moth species

15. Various Microlepidoptera

16. Tortricid Moths - Tortricidae Black-patched Clepsis Moth Three-streaked Sparganothis Moth “The Dude”

17. Slug Moths - Limacodidae Spiny Oak Slug Moth Jewel Tailed Slug Moth Yellow-shouldered Slug Moth and caterpillar

18. Pyralid Moths - Pyralidae Drab Condylolomia Moth OrangeTufted Oneida Moth The Bee Moth

19. Plume Moths - Pterophoridae Artichoke Plume Moth Grape Plume Moth Morning Glory Plume Moth

20. Various Macrolepidoptera

21. Geometers - Geometridae Pale beauty White –fringed Emerald Maple spanworm moth Pale Metanema Large Lace Borer Moth White-ribboned Carpet Moth

22. Sphinx Moths - Sphingidae Small-eyed sphinx Northern pine sphinx Nessus sphinx Nessus sphinx Blinded sphinx

23. Prominent Moths - Notodontidae White dotted prominent Chocolateprominent Black-rimmed prominent

24. Lichen Moths - Arctiidae Virgin tiger moth Painted lichen moth Isabella Moth Banded tussock moth

25. “Bird Dropping” Moths – various sub families Owl-Eyed Bird Dropping Moth Pink- barred Pseudostrotia Black-dotted Glyph Tufted Bird Dropping Moth Green Leuconycta

26. Concepts: Camoflage

27. Moths of Ecuador

28. The End

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