Main identifying characteristics of butterfly moths (Lepidoptera)

Lepidopteran insects are commonly known as butterflies and moths. Their main feature is that their wings are covered with colorful scales, so they are known as "flying flowers" and "dancers of nature". Lepidoptera have many of the most beautiful colors found in the living world on their wings. The bright colors are the most attractive part of butterflies and some moths. Color can be produced by pigments, structures, or both. There are two types of Papilion butterfly Troides, which combine structural color and translucent golden pigment to form the most beautiful and colorful colors. Specimens of the fluorescent Papilion butterfly T.magellanus can only see golden yellow pigments when viewed from above, but when viewed from behind, beautiful pink and green flashes appear on the hind wings.

The mouthparts of Lepidoptera are siphon-type, specialized in feeding on liquid food such as nectar. The larvae are commonly known as caterpillars. Their foreheads are in the shape of a "human" and they have toe hooks on their abdominal feet. The identification characteristics of Lepidoptera can be memorized by the following four jingles: Lepidoptera has siphonic mouthparts and four wings covered with membranous scales; moths dance among flowers and fly into the fire; larvae have many legs and harm plants. The differences between moths and butterflies are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Differences between moths and butterflies

None of the characteristics listed in Table 1 can be used alone, because any of the characteristics in the table has exceptions for butterflies and moths, so they must be considered comprehensively.

1. Quantity, size, and distribution

Lepidoptera is the second largest order after Coleoptera. There are currently about 200,000 known species, of which butterflies account for about 10% (more than 20,000 species), and the rest are moths. About 10,000 species are known in my country, including more than 1,300 species of butterflies.

Lepidoptera vary greatly in individual size and development rate, with wingspans ranging from the smallest 4mm to the largest 300mm (larger than the smallest birds). The life span ranges from 3 weeks to complete a generation to 3 years to complete a generation. Except for a few species that live in water, the vast majority live in terrestrial environments. Except for Antarctica, it occurs on all continents, from arid deserts and mountains to swamps and tropical rainforests. Most family-level units are cosmopolitan, a few small families, some subfamilies, and most genus-level units are. Regionally distributed.

2. Importance to Humanity

1. Lepidoptera is the most diverse order among agricultural and forestry pests. It harms agricultural and forestry plants, grains, medicinal materials, dried fruits, fur and other stored items, causing huge economic losses. However, it does not transmit diseases and does not parasitize humans or livestock. The most famous pests include rice borers, armyworms, corn borers, cotton worms, codling moths, various pine caterpillars, etc.

2. A few Lepidopteran insects are directly beneficial to humans.

(1) Industrial raw materials: Silk produced by insects such as Bombyx mori is the basic raw material for silk products.

(2) Food: Green-winged butterfly (Rhopalocampta libeon) larvae are collected in large quantities as food in the Congo. Silkworm chrysalis is a famous nutritional product in my country. Bean hornworm larvae and pupae, sweet potato hornworm, sesame woodworm, grape hornworm, peach hornworm, Elaeagnus jujube looper, wood looper, pine caterpillar, damask moth, thorn moth, camphor silkworm, tea silkworm, silkworm, tussah silkworm, Pink bollworms, corn borers, bamboo borers, etc. are all nutritious foods and are widely eaten by people everywhere. Magathymidae larvae are canned in Mexico and exported as tapas.

(3) Medicinal materials: Cordyceps sinensis is a valuable traditional Chinese medicine. It is formed by the Cordyceps fungus parasitizing lepidopteran larvae such as bat moths. It has the effect of nourishing the lungs and kidneys, relieving cough and reducing phlegm. Cordyceps militaris is artificially cultivated from silkworm pupae and cordyceps fungi. White silkworm can cure stroke and aphonia. Gold swallowtail larvae (fennel worms) are drunk to death with wine, dried and ground into powder to treat stomach problems, small intestinal gas, etc. "Insect tea" is the feces excreted by insects such as Hydrillodes morosa Butler and Aglossa dimidatua after feeding on plants such as Begonia trifoliata and Fragrance Tree. It has the functions of clearing away heat and detoxifying, strengthening the spleen and stomach, and helping Digestion and other functions. Yellow spiny moth (cocoon and pupa are used as medicine) can treat convulsions, epilepsy, mouth ulcers and other diseases in children. The larvae of the sorghum borer (Proceras veno satus Walker) are used as medicine to treat blood in the stool, hemorrhoids, etc.

(4) Biological control of weeds: An African moth (Cactoblastis cactorum) is used to control weeds in 60,000 acres in South America. There are many unknown weeds in nature that are eliminated by Lepidopteran larvae.

(5) Pollination: Butterflies and moths are the main pollinating insects, ranking fourth after Hymenoptera, Diptera and Coleoptera. It has brought huge economic benefits to mankind.

(6) Test materials: Insects have the advantages of short life cycle and easy to raise. At the same time, insects are open-circulation animals, and organs or endocrine glands are relatively easy to transplant, so they are good research materials. Much knowledge of endocrine control comes from Research on silkworms, etc.

Many Lepidopteran insects are valuable research materials for biological research, including ecology, biogeography, systematics, genetics, and physiology. For example, the industrial blackening of the birch moth is an important material for studying ancestry and evolutionary theory.

Bionics can also benefit from the patterns on butterfly wings. In Stalingrad, the Soviet Union, a general used a butterfly pattern to defend military facilities, hiding them from enemy bombings. After the general's death, people carved a butterfly on his tomb to commemorate his outstanding achievements.

(7) Collections: Due to the beauty and cuteness of butterflies and moths, museums and amateurs compete to collect them, so these specimens have also become the objects of export and resale in some places. Taiwan's butterfly exports in 1976 totaled US$30 million.

3. Lepidoptera and human cultural life

Humans have been praising butterflies since ancient times, and they seem to be consistent at home and abroad; poets and poets have written countless popular poems about them; painters often incorporate them into evocative music; even ordinary people can't help but feel excited when they see them. They used vulgar words to express their feelings.

Butterflies first appeared in literary works, probably in the pre-Qin prose masterpiece "Zhuangzi". Zhuang Zhou's Mengdie is one of the famous ones. The article tells that Zhuang Zhou dreamed that he turned into a butterfly, "a vivid butterfly" and "I don't know Zhou Ye". When he woke up, he was surprised to see that he was Zhuang Zhou. Therefore, he was confused, not knowing whether Zhuang Zhou dreamed of becoming a butterfly, or whether the butterfly dreamed of becoming Zhuang Zhou. This fable is to illustrate that the butterfly and Zhuang Zhou, the things and myself, are originally one and there is no difference, so there is no need to investigate. For more than two thousand years since then, Zhuang Zhou's dream of butterflies has become an important theme for literati and poets to borrow objects to express their aspirations.It became a synonym for dream. The poem "Jin Se" by Li Shangyin of the Tang Dynasty is full of remembrances of deceased friends and expresses the feelings of joy and sorrow. The poem quotes Zhuang Zhou's allusion of dreaming about butterflies. The first sentence "Zhuang Sheng dreamed of butterflies at dawn" is a metaphor for the unity of things, while the second sentence "Wang Di Wang" "The heart of spring supports the cuckoo" is a metaphor for separation. In the poem "Long Trunk Shape", there is a sentence: "Butterflies are yellow in August, flying on the grass in the West Garden." Du Fu's poem "Two Poems on Qujiang" wrote: "You can see the butterfly deeply through the flowers, and the dragonfly on the water. Flying." It depicts butterflies flying in the flowers for food, mating, laying eggs and dragonflies in the water to lay eggs. They are like flying at the touch of a touch, which is lifelike. Xie Yi of the Northern Song Dynasty described in "Butterfly": "Sometimes you can see it wildly following catkins, but where can you find it dancing into pear blossoms." Yang Wanli of the Southern Song Dynasty's poem "Two Poems from Xugongdian, Suxin City" says: "Children rush to chase yellow butterflies, flying There is nowhere to be found in the cauliflower." They respectively describe the scene of the cabbage white butterfly flying among the white pear flowers and the yellow pink butterfly flying among the yellow rapeseed flowers. Due to the protective colors of the two butterflies, the butterfly and the flower are the same color, making it difficult to distinguish them. There is a poem in Tang Zuyong's "Giving Seedlings and Hairdressers Outside" that "the silk is long and the pink butterfly flies", which refers to the graceful and graceful ribbon butterfly with a long and slender tail protrusion.

Butterflies are deeply loved by people because of their bright colors. There are many art works with butterflies as the theme in the past dynasties. For example, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the pattern composed of butterflies and melons represented auspiciousness. The combination of butterflies and flowers made the picture vivid and natural, and the paired butterflies represented the symbol of love. These are adopted by folk customs and have been passed down ever since. At the end of the Shaoxing opera "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", the hero and heroine transform into a pair of butterflies as a symbol of loyal love. The song "Butterfly Lovers", written based on the tragic love story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, has touched countless people around the world. Among them, the melody of "Butterfly" is even more beautiful and touching. "Butterfly Lovers" has become a precious spiritual wealth of our people.

The Palace Museum in Beijing houses many famous paintings from the past dynasties of the motherland. Among them is a Song painting called "Mu Chun Butterfly Opera". The picture is clear and vivid, with more than ten colorful butterflies, brightly colored and graceful. This painting is said to have been created by Li Anzhong, a painter of the Southern Song Dynasty. The size proportions, morphological characteristics, and color patterns of various butterflies in the painting are mostly similar to the real objects and lifelike. Although thousands of years have passed, it is still possible to identify the butterfly species that were produced near the capital of Lin'an (now Hangzhou) in the Southern Song Dynasty. In some species, the male and female can be clearly and unmistakably identified.

There are even more butterfly patterns that can be seen in fabrics, embroidery, stamps and handicrafts. Papilio butterfly is the best material for arts and crafts. Papilio butterfly specimens can be displayed in various shapes, matched with flowers and plants, and then put into glass covers or photo frames. They can be used as coffee table furnishings and wall decorations. They are very popular in European and American markets. welcome. Artists use the beautiful and colorful butterfly wings to collage them into butterfly wing paintings with high artistic value. There is a butterfly wing painting modeled on the famous painting "Hundred Horses", which is worth as much as 16,700 US dollars. It has emerged in our country in the early 1980s, and Mr. Lin Ping of Fujian Oriental Specimen Company has carried out large-scale production. It uses the wings of various butterflies as raw materials, takes the advantages of traditional Chinese painting, oil painting and sculpture and other expressive arts, and uses the spontaneous combustion patterns of butterflies to collage patterns such as landscapes, scenery, figures, flowers, birds and animals. Now it has been used in breast ornaments, hairpins, hat flowers, furniture, door frames and house decoration. The Meiwa Entomological Research Institute in Gifu City, Japan, has successfully developed a butterfly scale transfer printing technology that can reproduce the pattern and color of butterfly wings that users are satisfied with on clothing, ties, tablecloths and other accessories. The book "World Butterfly Stamps" compiled by Shou Jianxin and Zhou Yao (1990) collected 563 butterfly stamps of 323 species in the world, including a set of 20 stamps of 20 species in mainland my country.

Papilio butterflies are the most collectible among insects, because most of them are large and beautiful species, including many rare and valuable butterflies, such as the world's largest butterfly - Ornitthoptera, with a wingspan of up to 250mm. Above; Lamproptera, which has a wingspan of less than 50mm and has the longest tail process; Teinopalpus aureus Mell, the most precious and rare butterfly in the world, which is endemic to China and is a treasure that collectors are eager to collect; There are also pearlescent swallowtail butterflies (Troides magellanus) that emit colorful light from different angles, and so on. Therefore, butterfly specimens have a long history as international trade commodities, with Papilio butterflies being the main ones. According to the Threatened Papilio butterfly Red Data Book published by IUCN in 1985, a total of 573 species of Papilio butterflies have been recorded in 51 countries and regions, and most of them can be traded as commodities. It can be divided into three major categories according to its viewing type and trade situation. First, low-price and large-volume specimens: These specimens are common species, are abundant in quantity, and are cheap. After purchase, they are processed into various decorations with their wings, antennae, etc. The remaining worms are generally used as feed, which is a high-protein, low-fat nutritious feed. Butterfly handicrafts (such as various stickers) can be sold at high prices. In the past, butterfly trade in Taiwan Province mostly fell into this category. Due to a large number of unscrupulous traders who hunted and collected butterflies for processing and export, the number of butterflies in Taiwan has plummeted. This has attracted the attention of people from all walks of life, and a series of butterfly protection measures have been implemented to curb it. Second, specimens with high price and low quantity: These specimens are rare and beautiful species. They are usually accompanied by scientific records such as collection location, date, altitude, etc. The price of each specimen is very high. They are suitable for museum scientific researchers and collectors. The desired specimen. Traders from Europe, North America and Japan all submitted catalogs of specimens they wished to acquire. The international trade in rare butterflies reaches its peak in Papua New Guinea. Ornaments or pictures made from precious specimens are priceless. Third, live insect trade: Most of the objects are common and beautiful species, mainly swallowtail butterflies, with medium prices. The ordered live pupae or live adults are quickly transported from the place of production to the net room or shed of the Butterfly Ecological Garden. Visitors can enjoy the wonderful garden landscape of fragrant flowers and dancing butterflies in the shed; for example, the Tama Zoo in Ueno City, Japan has an "Insect Ecological Garden", which looks like a silk butterfly spreading its wings and is about to fly. Inside, there are nearly a thousand colorful and colorful butterflies of more than a dozen species. The fluttering butterflies are for visitors to watch and enjoy, and the beauty of the situation is intoxicating.

To sum up, Lepidoptera insects are closely related to our lives, and there is still a lot of knowledge and anecdotes about them that we need to understand and understand. Only by mastering their types and habits can we fully protect and utilize their beneficial aspects, prevent and control their harmful aspects, and turn harm into benefit as much as possible to benefit mankind.

3. Protected butterflies in my country

A total of 5 species of butterflies were included in my country's wildlife protection list in 1990.

They are: Teinopalpus aureus Mell level I,

Two-tailed brown swallowtail butterfly (Two-tailed swallowtail butterfly) Bhutanitis mansfieldi (Riley) Grade II,

Three-tailed brown swallowtail butterfly Dongchuan subspecies Bhutanitis thaidina dongchuanensis LeeⅡ level,

Apollo silk butterfly Parnassius apollo L.Ⅱ level,

Luehdorfia chinensis huashanensis Lee II level.

The lists discussed and revised in 1996 and 2000 were still dominated by Papilio. Losaria coon (Fabricius) and Teinopslpus imperialis Hope were listed as Class I. Most or the entire family of Parnassius was classified as Class I. Class II protected object. For details about these butterflies, please see the various descriptions that follow.

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