butterfly
- Term Type
Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Preferred Term
butterfly
- Details
Members of a superfamily containing around 14,000 species of insects belonging to four families. The wings, bodies, and legs of butterflies, like those of moths, are covered with dustlike scales. Unlike moths, butterflies are active during the day and are usually brightly colored or strikingly patterned. Perhaps the most distinctive physical features of the butterfly are its club-tipped antennae and its habit of holding the wings vertically over the back when at rest.
- Variations
Papilionoidea
butterflies
true butterflies
Lepidoptera diurna
Rhopalocera