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The larvae – caterpillars – have a toughened (sclerotised) head capsule, chewing mouthparts, and a soft body, that may have hair-like or other projections, three pairs of true legs, and up to five pairs of prolegs. Most caterpillars are herbivores, but a few are carnivores (some eat ants, aphids, or other caterpillars) or detritivores. [2]
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 ...
The morphology of scales has been studied by Downey & Allyn (1975) and scales have been classified into three groups, namely: [1] Hair-like or piliform. Blade-like or lamellar. Other variable forms. Primitive moths (non-Glossata and Eriocranidae) have 'solid' scales which are imperforate, i.e., they lack a lumen. [1] As per Scoble (2005): [1]
Some butterflies, especially in the tropics, have several generations in a year, while others have a single generation, and a few in cold locations may take several years to pass through their entire life cycle. [3] Butterflies are often polymorphic, and many species make use of camouflage, mimicry, and aposematism to evade their predators. [4]
They are also called brush-footed butterflies or four-footed butterflies, because they are known to stand on only four legs while the other two are curled up; in some species, these forelegs have a brush-like set of hairs, which gives this family its other common name.
The mandibles cut and crush food, and may be used for defense; generally, they have an apical cutting edge, and the more basal molar area grinds the food. They can be extremely hard (around 3 on Mohs , or an indentation hardness of about 30 kg/mm 2 ); thus, many termites and beetles have no physical difficulty in boring through foils made from ...
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While the butterflies form a monophyletic group, the moths, which comprise the rest of the Lepidoptera, do not. Many attempts have been made to group the superfamilies of the Lepidoptera into natural groups, most of which fail because one of the two groups is not monophyletic: Microlepidoptera and Macrolepidoptera, Heterocera and Rhopalocera, Jugatae and Frenatae, Monotrysia and Ditrysia.