🎲

🦁 Animal world 🐞 Insects and minibeasts

The moth

The moth

πŸ“– In short

The moth is an insect very close to the butterfly, but most moths fly at night. You may have seen one circling the porch light in the evening. Like a butterfly, it has wings covered in tiny scales like dust.

🀩 Did you know?

  • The smallest moths have a wingspan of only about 3 millimeters.
  • There are many more kinds of moths than butterflies.
  • The atlas moth is one of the biggest insects in the world.
  • Some male moths can smell a female from kilometers away.

πŸ”Ž Find out more

🌟 How do we tell them apart?

Butterflies usually fly by day and fold their wings above their backs, while moths fly at night and spread their wings flat when they land. Moth antennae look like feathers or threads, and butterfly antennae have a little knob at the tip.

πŸ” Colors for hiding

Most moths are brown or grey like tree bark, so they hide by day without birds seeing them. But some are beautifully colored.

πŸ’‘ Why do they circle lights?

Scientists think moths use moonlight to find their way at night, so when they see a nearby lamp they get confused and keep circling it.

🎯 Useful or annoying

The silkworm that makes silk is the caterpillar of a moth. And the caterpillars of some small moths eat wool in wardrobes and make holes in it.

πŸ“Έ More pictures

The moth
The moth
The moth

🧩 Test yourself

1 When do most moths fly?

2 The silkworm is the caterpillar of a:

3 The smallest moths have a wingspan of only about ?? millimeters.

4 Which picture shows β€œThe moth”?

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πŸ“· Picture sources: Wikimedia Commons