We looked all over for these butterflies and moths . Hoping to find them take a picture and really study and analyze one of these insects and get a better understanding of their role is in the environment. From what I gathered from Butterfly Conservation website is that moths are needed for much more than just pollination which is also very important because “while they pollinate the flowers they feed on the nectar, this helps with seed production. This not only benefits wild plants but also many of our food crops, which depend on moths as well as other insects to ensure a good harvest. Moths are apart of the food chain for bats and birds”.
My groups project is called BAMONA which stands for Butterflies and Moths of North America. So far my group hasn’t had any luck in finding moths. At first I thought the picture we took of this white insect was a moth but as it turns out its a Cabbage White butterfly. My group and I were so focused on trying to find a picture of a moth and a butterfly that when we finally got somewhat of a decent picture . We forgot to complete our research on what the differences are between moths and butterflies. So do you want to know the differences between the two? Well… its their antennae “A butterfly’s antennae are club-shaped with a long shaft and a bulb at the end. A moth’s antennae are feathery or saw-edged. There you have it just look at the antennae. My next discovery will be how do you get close enough to them so you can examine their antennae.To get better results and find our missing moth I did some research on where moths and butterflies are typically found, when they are active, and what they eat, also how you differentiate between a moth and a butterfly.
According to Kids ‘Inquiry of Diverse Species “there are 146 species of butterflies in Michigan.” Which completely through me off for a second because I thought there was only one native moth in Michigan. But I learned in that “Moths and butterflies usually stay close to the food plants used by their young.” “Butterflies are active in the day, and most Moths fly at night. There are some moths that fly in the daylight though.” “Most moths and nearly all butterfly caterpillars eat the leaves and flowers of plants.” So when my group and I went out to the Hardwoods this time we went out looking around the areas where we thought the moths and butterflies may be such as around the grassy areas of the forest. Luckily we found some more butterflies all different colors one of them was orange, another was black, and the rest were mostly the Cabbage White Butterflies. Are only problems now was that these insects were always moving and none of the ones we seen were still also we didn’t spot any moths so that left us wondering where are the moths?
Kids’ Inquiry of Diverse Species