140 species of butterflies flutter through Ohio

By STEPHANIE HUGHES

OSU Extension master gardener volunteer

Did you know that there are approximately 140 species of butterflies in Ohio and an estimated 3,000 species of moths?

These are the night-flyers, the evening beauty and the caterpillars that we find in the garden, on the flowers and among the shrubs.

Have you ever seen a tomato horn worm devouring the leaves of a lush tomato plant in the garden? The telltale castings littering the ground under a stripped plant? That is a baby moth.

Moths are different from butterflies in many ways. First, moths have feathery or comblike antennae, and butterflies have long slender antennae with balls or clubs on the ends.

Butterflies’ bodies are slender and sleek, and moths are plump to fat and fuzzy. Moths go through the four stages of metamorphosis, as do butterflies (egg, larva or caterpillar, pupa and adult), but moths form a pupa called a cocoon, and butterflies form a chrysalis.

Butterfly wings have fine scales, and moths have large scales (fluffy). Butterflies are out in the daylight (diurnal), and moths are usually out in the evening (crepuscular) and night (nocturnal).

Moths are pollinators as adults, and the caterpillars are voracious eaters of plant material. Many have special favorites. They are divided in many categories, but a few are Sphingidae or Sphinx moths, Saturniidae (adults do not eat, and many do not even have a mouth), and Tussock.

The Sphinx moths fly and move so that many people think it is a hummingbird they are watching, as they move from flower to flower.

The Saturniidae moths are the silk moths, and many have vibrant colors of orange, red, lime green, white and brown.

The Tussock moths can be dangerous. They have protective tufts of bristles or haired projections under soft tufts that can cause painful reactions to skin. Gypsy moths and Ohio’s famous “wollybears” are in this category.

We indiscriminately kill horn worms on our garden plants, and we fail to realize that we are destroying Ohio’s moth population.