Butterflies and moths are often mistaken for one another, but there are several marked differences between them. One way to tell them apart is that butterflies have a pair of black antennae that look like thin pieces of wire with black balls on the ends, while the antennae of moths are feathery and pretty. Another way to tell them apart is to watch them as they land. A butterfly at rest holds its wings upright over its body, while a moth lands with its wings wide open. A butterfly has a tapered body, while a moth’s body is usually thick and hairy. Another difference—butterflies are day fliers, while most moths fly only after dusk.
Butterflies and moths are often extremely pretty. One moth in the eastern United States, called cecropia, is a beautiful blending of deep brown, tan and white over its large wings and oddly checkered body and is one of the largest in North America. Another is the luna. Its wings are a light green, but entirely circled with a dark brown border in front and light tan elsewhere, including its body. The name luna (relating to the moon) tells us that it is active only at night.
One of the most outstanding and best-known butterflies is the monarch. Great colonies of these, hatched during summer months in the United States and Canada, make quite a sight migrating in the fall to several places in California and Mexico, beautiful in their black-bordered, deep-orange wings and black bodies. Their parents had flown in the opposite direction in the spring, but died before the fall. How do you think the young ones know where to migrate or what direction to take without their parents to lead them? This is just another example of the Creator’s care over all things He has created. David wrote in Psalm 145:99The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. (Psalm 145:9), “The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works.” Incidentally, these young monarchs, fully grown through the winter months in the south, will return to the same northern spots the next spring, hatch new babies there and die. This same pattern continues year after year.
Another lovely butterfly is the swallowtail, common in many North American gardens. Its wings are a delicate yellow, bordered and marked in black when seen from above, but from below, the border has a front band of black, then deep blue, followed by more black, with a row of bright-red, curved crescents.
David, who wrote many of the psalms, enjoyed thinking about creation, as the opening Bible verse shows. He knew who made the world and everything in it and that it is only by the Lord God that all living things have been brought into the world and are cared for.
(to be continued)