Talk:Comparison of butterflies and moths

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This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): SamFeinberg.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 18:12, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Orphaned references in Differences between butterflies and moths
I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Differences between butterflies and moths's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "scoble": From Arctiidae: Scoble, MJ. (1995) The Lepidoptera: Form, Function and Diversity. Second ed. Oxford University Press. From Lepidoptera: Scoble, MJ 1995. The Lepidoptera: form, function and diversity. Oxford, UK: The Oxford University Press; 404 p. 

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT ⚡ 04:04, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

Heterocera, a former suborder?
I'm posting this here because Heterocera redirects to this article. According to, Heterocera is a "formerly recognized suborder of Lepidoptera" - this means that: --Notmyhandle (talk) 04:07, 16 February 2010 (UTC)
 * 1) Moth has an incorrect infobox, where the unranked Heterocera should be correctly classified as a suborder (see next point); also note that other sites refer to it as a suborder.
 * 2) Because it is referred to as "formerly recognized", the suborder Heterocera has controversy/history that should be addressed by its own article, or this article because Heterocera redirects here. This history should be addressed to clarify its current status (as a possibly "unranked" taxonomic rank).

"True Butterfiles"?
I am by no means an expert, but is it safe enough to assume that the phrase "true butterfiles" (in parentheses after the link to "Papilionoidea") in the first paragraph is a typo? Brettpeirce (talk) 13:39, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Choice of illustrations
The long standing (since 2004) examples of butterflies vs moths were poor quality, after a long search for clean, representative examples I have added a couple which I think illustrate the extremes as described in the article. I will look for a few more illustrations of other points in the article. --Tony Wills (talk) 07:41, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

Moths do not form chrysalides
It can be read in the "Pupae" section, "For example, the Hawk moths form an exposed chrysalis" By definition, moths do not form chrysalides/chrysalises. However, this is based on information stated in the "Pupa" wiki article, as follows in the "Chrysalis" section, "It is important to differentiate between pupa, chrysalis and cocoon. The pupa is the stage between the larva and adult stages. The chrysalis is a butterfly pupa. A cocoon is a silk case that moths, and sometimes other insects, spin around the pupa." Atreyiu (talk) 01:04, 27 May 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Atreyiu (talk • contribs) 00:47, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

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Question about examples of Examples of exceptions to the general moth/butterfly distinctions
Hi everyone,

I was thinking that we should add in some examples of butterflies to this section. Using the Cabbage White Butterfly makes sense because it is mentioned earlier in the entry. It is important for people to realize that moths and butterflies can both share characteristics with the other. Thanks, SamFeinberg (talk) 00:28, 23 July 2018 (UTC)