Moth or Butterfly: A Lesson in Diversity

The other day, while thinking about how difficult times cause me feel as if I’m in a chrysalis waiting to emerge, I immediately hoped I would emerge as a butterfly instead of a moth. After all, I was aware of butterflies like the following, which appear on many “most beautiful butterflies” lists:

Red lacewing butterfly

Blue morpho butterfly

Purple emperor butterfly

Sadly, my preconceived notions are based on ignorance about moths. But look at this moth:

Royal walnut moth

Pretty isn’t it? I learned about the Royal walnut moth when I searched the Internet to find out what’s great about moths so that I could let go of any misguided thinking concerning them. Among other sources, I found a great article online: “7 Things You Don’t Know About Moths, But Should.” That’s how I learned about another moth:

 

Atlas moth

The Atlas moth is the largest moth in the world, with a wingspan of over ten inches! How’d you like a moth that large to land on your arm? Or how about the Cecropia moth (not mentioned in the article, but pictured below), with its six-inch wingspan? Still, it’s beautiful too! Like the Royal walnut moth (which has a wingspan of over three to six inches) and the Atlas moth, the Cecropia moth is one of the Saturniidae or saturniid—a family group boasting the largest moths around.

Cecropia moth

Another saturniid is the Tussah moth—a silk moth.

Tussah moth

So moths come in a larger variety than just the tiny brown creatures circling light fixtures in the summer. There are over 12,000 different moths in North America alone.

A couple of the great things about moths unfortunately involve their being food for other creatures, which isn’t a plus if you’re a moth.

So, now I know a little bit more about moths, but I’m still a novice on the subject. But I figured that I could at least make the effort to learn more about them, rather than remain satisfied with my previous level of ignorance.

While researching the different kinds of moths, I immediately thought about diversity and how I make assumptions or sometimes coast on ignorance, rather than make a concerted effort to learn about other cultures. I spent more time looking up facts about moths than I did brushing up on Spanish or Mandarin. (I don’t know much Mandarin, so I’m not impressive in the least. One of my nephews, however, is studying Mandarin. He’s cool.)

The world is such a big place. There are close to seven thousand spoken languages in the world, Mandarin being the most widely spoken. Spanish is second. Don’t believe me? Check here.

It’s time for me to return to learning about other cultures and languages. I’m sure my life will be the richer for it. And someday, when I bust out of that chrysalis, maybe being a moth might be pretty cool too.

Moth or butterfly? Which would you choose? Why?

Royal walnut moth photo from freepages.misc.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Atlas moth photo from Wikipedia. Red lacewing butterfly from mflowers.chromesphere.com. Blue morpho butterfly from hdwallpapersarea.com. Purple emperor butterfly from kamranweb.com. Cecropia moth and chrysalis from commons.wikimedia.org. Tussah moth from Wikipedia.