Scientific name: Ephestia kuehniella.
This moth species belongs to the family Pyralidae. As its name suggests, this moth species is a common pest of flour. Although it explicitly infests flour, people also know it as a prevalent pest that targets cereal grains.
You’ll find these insects in various parts of the world. The adult variants have a wingspan of about 2 to 2.5cm and a length of around 0.9 to 1.2cm. The forewings have a uniform grey color with some dark brown and white marks.
Scientific name: Sitotroga cerealella.
Angoumois grain moths attack several grains. This moth species is mainly associated with ear corn, and it's rare in shelled corn.
This insect is a primarily stored grain pest because its caterpillar stages develop entirely within a grain kernel. The infested grain, therefore, loses its economic worth. In addition to this, it causes an unpleasant smell, so animals may refuse to eat it and reduce its consumption.
Scientific name: Helicoverpa zea.
This moth species belongs to the family of Noctuidae. The larvae of Helicoverpa zea, corn earworm, is a major agricultural pest. The moth measures 3.2 to 4.5cm in wingspan. The corn earworm moth has different common names like cotton bollworm and tomato fruitworm.
This moth is particularly destructive as it targets the most important parts of a plant for food. As insignificant as it might seem, the economic costs of this moth type are over $250 million per year in the United States.
Scientific name: Mamestra brassicae.
The cabbage moth is one alarming pest for farmers. Cabbage moth is simply a common name as the species feeds on many fruits, vegetables, and crops in the genus Brassica - cabbage, broccoli, and brussels sprouts. It also eats tomato plants, potatoes, and other important crops. It’s a major pest for all brassicas.
Scientific name: Plutella xylostella.
Diamondback moths feast on any crop in the Brassicaceae plant family. They also feed on floral stalks and flower buds. Adult moths are small, slender, and greyish brown. The male moth has three diamond markings on its back. The damage diamondback moths cause is not so much from feeding but the contamination the pupae cause.
Scientific name: Cydia pomonella.
The codling moth has a wingspan of about 1.2 to 1.8cm, and it's about 1cm long when at rest with the wings folded. It has a grey-brownish-pale color. This moth originated in Asia but has spread out to all continents except Antarctica.
It’s the primary insect pest of pome fruits like apples and pears. The larvae not only feed on the leaves of these fruits but also on the fruits themselves. They are highly dependent on fruits as a food source. Consequently, these insects cause damage and loss since every fruit they munch on becomes unsellable.
Scientific name: Manduca quinquemaculata.
This moth is a part of the hawkmoth group, meaning that it’s relatively large with a long proboscis. The five spotted hawkmoths are the Sphingidae family's brown and grey hawk moth. It’s a threat to all Solanaceae plant family crops, including tomato, tobacco, potato, and pepper.
They are a major pest in gardens. They get their name from the raising of their posterior end and their use of tomatoes as host plants.
Scientific name: Pyrrharctia isabella.
This is another species of moth that can be classified as one of the cute moths. It’s notable for its multi-colored larvae with black-brown-red segments. People also know this as the banded woolly bear.
The adult moth has a pale yellow, scaly body and orange-yellow wings with a marked forewing. Woolly bears are endemic to the Southern United States of America and Canada.
Scientific name: Antheraea polyphemus.
The polyphemus moth is easy to spot with its striking eyespots on both fore and hind wings. The hind wings’ eye spots are large, with yellow as the primary color and black-white strings.
The forewings spots are also yellow but smaller in size. It has a wingspan of 15cm. Their wings are not just widely spread but are also colorful with red, grey, and brown shades. It gets its name from the cyclops in Greek mythology called Polyphemus because of its sizeable solitary eyespot in the middle of its hind wings.
Scientific name: Arctia caja.
The attractive coloration and patterns on the hindwings of this moth make it cute and appealing. The garden tiger is a pretty colorful moth found in North America and Eurasia.
It has white with attractive black markings on its forewings and orange with many black spots on its hindwings. Their colorful hindwings are warnings to predators. Garden tiger moths display their colorful hindwings when threatened. They secrete poisonous fluid from their body when a threat persists.
Scientific name: Tyria jacobaeae.
When it comes to ranking cute moths, there is no doubt that cinnabar moths make the list; both the adult and larvae moths are colorful. It has a bright orange body, red markings on its forewings, and scarlet on its hindwings.
The bright color of the larvae serves as a warning to predators. Cinnabar moths live in meadows, wastelands, and downlands.
Scientific name: Hyalophora cecropia.
Cecropia moths are cute moths famous for their brilliant colors and large size. This cute moth has a reddish body and reddish-brown wings with bands of white and tan, and orange markings. The cecropia moth has a wingspan of 5 to 6 inches. It’s the largest moth in North America.
They are hard to spot as they are mainly nocturnal and live primarily in rocky mountains of the United States and Canada. You’ll find the moth larvae on cherry trees, maple trees, and birch trees.
Scientific name: Macroglossum stellatarum.
Out of the members of the hawk moth family members, hummingbird hawk moths are probably the most attractive and cutest. They have grayish-brown forewings and orange hindwings. Their colorful hindwings become evident in their rapid flight.
Hummingbird moths get their name because of their feeding behavior, similar to hummingbirds, with their long proboscis or nose. Also, they hover over flowers and make humming sounds just like hummingbirds. They belong to the family Sphingidae, along with others like the oleander hawk moth.
Scientific name: Automeris io.
The IO moth, also known as the peacock moth, sports these incredible colors and patterns on their wings. We can find this moth in North America, where we can find the plant species that the caterpillars enjoy eating, such as willow and pear. This nocturnal moth can grow as large as 8cm.
Scientific name: Dryocampa rubicunda.
This moth species possesses bright colors. It has pink legs, a yellow body, and striped pink and yellow wings. The rosy maple moth is native to North America, specifically temperate forests in eastern North America. These moths get their name from their tree of preference, the maple tree.
Scientific name: Smerinthus jamaicensis.
Twin-spotted sphinx moths belong to the family Sphingidae along with others like the rosy maple moth and white-lined sphinx moth. This sphinx moth has a large wingspan of 2 to 3 inches.
This sphinx moth has stunning blue eyespots on its hind wing. The colors on its wings are beige-brown, white and pinkish-red, and yellow markings. The larger wedge-shaped forewings are yellowish-brown with shades of dark brown and white markings. You’ll find this sphinx moth spread across North America.
Scientific name: Attacus atlas.
The atlas moth falls under the Saturniidae family. It’s one of the largest moths in the world, with a wingspan of around 10 inches (25cm). These brown moths have brightly colored orange-brown wings with triangular markings of white, and black stripes, yellowish patterned margins, and a round orange-brown body.
Its antennae of two long filaments make it look like a fish skeleton. They live in forests and shrublands in Southeast Asia. As beautiful as these adult moths are, they have a short life span. The atlas moth only lives a few weeks once it’s out of its cocoons.
Scientific name: Dysphania militaris.
This moth is another moth that people often mistake for a butterfly, perhaps due to its bright coloration; that looks like some swallowtail butterflies. We can find it in Southeast Asia with a wingspan of about 3.5 inches.
The head, thorax, and abdomen are golden yellow with purple bands. Also, the forewings have half golden yellow, with the other outer half purple.
Scientific name: Hypercompe scribonia.
The giant leopard moth belongs to the family Erebidae. It has bright white wings covered with dark, round blotches in a manner that resembles a snow leopard.
It has a distinctive color pattern. When it spreads its wings, its colorful abdomen becomes visible with shiny blue and orange spots. The wingspan is about 7.6cm, and the average male grows to an average length of 5.1cm while the female counterparts grow up to 3cm. Their mating session is exceptionally long and can last for about 24 hours or even more.
Scientific name: Agarista agricola.
Large Agarista, otherwise known as Joseph's Coat Moth, is another of the world's most beautiful and brightly colored moths. It has black wings with streaks and blotches and yellow, white, blue, and red bands. It has a hind wing fringed with white, and the thorax - the segment between the head and abdomen is yellow.
Its wingspan is between 2.5 inches and 2.75 inches, with a metallic glimmer in its blue wing. It also has a cape of cream or white color and feeds on species of wild grapevines.
A python (top) and rattlesnake illustrating the positions of the pit organs. Arrows pointing to the pit organs are red; a black arrow points to the nostril.
The ability to sense infrared thermal radiation evolved independently in three different groups of snakes, consisting of the families of Boidae (boas), Pythonidae (pythons), and the subfamily Crotalinae (pit vipers). What is commonly called a pit organ allows these animals to essentially "see" radiant heat at wavelengths between 5 and 30 μm. The more advanced infrared sense of pit vipers allows these animals to strike prey accurately even in the absence of light, and detect warm objects from several meters away. It was previously thought that the organs evolved primarily as prey detectors, but recent evidence suggests that it may also be used in thermoregulation and predator detection, making it a more general-purpose sensory organ than was supposed.
The scientific name of the moose is Alces alces. However, other countries don't call them "moose." In British English, these majestic animals are more commonly called "elk." The largest moose population is in Canada, whose residents call them rubber-nosed swamp donkeys.
The term "elk" comes from the Old Norse word "elgr," which various European languages later adopted to refer to this animal. When European settlers arrived in North America, they met the indigenous Algonquin people who called the animal "moose" or "smoosh," which means twig-eater or stripper and eater of bark.
This naming inconsistency has caused some confusion. In North American English, "elk" refers to a completely different species of deer, scientifically known as Cervus Canadensis. North American elk, also called wapiti, share a few similarities with moose, such as antlers and herbivorous diet. However, they are smaller in size and have a distinct appearance.
It’s easy to understand why people confuse bison and buffalo. Both are large, horned, oxlike animals of the Bovidae family. There are two kinds of bison, the American bison and the European bison, and two forms of buffalo, water buffalo and Cape buffalo. However, it’s not difficult to distinguish between them, especially if you focus on the three H’s: home, hump, and horns.
From among the number of fruits available in the different parts of the world, there are some fruits which can be put under different categories, namely,
Citrus fruits/Subtropical fruits
Tropical fruits
Yellow fruits
Green fruits
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