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The insect order Lepidoptera consists of moths and butterflies (43 superfamilies). [1] Most moths are night-flying, while the butterflies (superfamily Papilionoidea ) are the mainly day-flying. Within Lepidoptera as a whole, the groups listed below before Glossata contain a few basal families accounting for less than 200 species; the bulk of ...
Of the approximately 174,250 lepidopteran species described until 2007, butterflies and skippers are estimated to comprise approximately 17,950, with moths making up the rest. [ 6 ] [ 7 ] The vast majority of Lepidoptera are to be found in the tropics, but substantial diversity exists on most continents.
Lepidoptera (/ ˌ l ɛ p ɪ ˈ d ɒ p t ər ə / LEP-ih-DOP-tər-ə) or lepidopterans is an order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths.About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organisms, [1] [2] making it the second largest insect order (behind Coleoptera) with 126 families [3] and 46 superfamilies ...
A Lepidoptera specimen drawer in a museum collection in Poland Another Lepidoptera specimen drawer in a museum collection in Poland. Lepidopterology (from Ancient Greek λεπίδος (lepídos) 'scale' πτερόν (pterón) 'wing' and -λογία [1]) is a branch of entomology concerning the scientific study of moths and the two superfamilies of butterflies.
In the adult butterflies, the first pair of legs is small or reduced, [3] giving the family the other names of four-footed or brush-footed butterflies. The caterpillars are hairy or spiky with projections on the head, and the chrysalids have shiny spots.
The Heliconiinae, commonly called heliconians or longwings, are a subfamily of the brush-footed butterflies (family Nymphalidae). They can be divided into 45–50 genera and were sometimes treated as a separate family Heliconiidae within the Papilionoidea.
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Possibly the original butter-fly. [6] A male brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) in flight.The Oxford English Dictionary derives the word straightforwardly from Old English butorflēoge, butter-fly; similar names in Old Dutch and Old High German show that the name is ancient, but modern Dutch and German use different words (vlinder and Schmetterling) and the common name often varies substantially ...