7 August 2025
Today a quiz that you face every day during Bug Season: Is this a Moth or a Butterfly?
These 11 photographs are moths and butterflies from Wikimedia Commons. The experts among you will be able to identify the species, but not all of them because some are from other continents and some have no location description. If you click on the caption links you’ll see the original photo with description … BUT … some of the descriptions are mislabeled.
Clues to help you:
- Antennae: Feathery (moths) vs Knobs (butterflies) … and then there are skippers
- Flying: Night (moths) vs Day (butterflies): But there are exceptions. However some of the photo backgrounds give a clue.
- Wing Position At Rest –> see this photo … And then there are skippers.
Need help? Check out this vintage article How Do You Know It’s A Moth? and Wikipedia’s Comparison of butterflies and moths.
Try the Quiz: “Moth? or Butterfly?” Don’t forget to identify the top photo.
6:00pm Update: I’ve posted answers in the Comments.
Kate,
Ok, this is a total guess on my part. Top one is a butterfly. The next four I am calling moths. Likely I am wrong on some. The following four are butterfly/s, likely wrong on some here too. The final two I am calling moths.
Now I have a question, hummingbird moth, is it a moth? But I see it active during the day!
Gene
Answers to the Moth/Butterfly Quiz:
1. Butterfly: Hackberry emperor
2. Moth: Hackberry dagger moth
3. Butterfly: actually a skipper — silver-spotted skipper
4. Butterfly (Skipper): species not identified in the description
5. Moth: Hickory tussock moth
6. Butterfly: Giant swallowtail
7. Butterfly: Falcate orangetip
8. Description says it’s a closeup of a moth but the antennae look like a butterfly to me
9. Moth: Green forester moth, native to Europe, Mongolia & western Russia
10. Moth: Unidentified, perhaps from Asia. Description says it’s a butterfly. Hah!
11. Moth: Unidentified. Big clue among other things is that it is on a “mothing” cloth
Looks like 9 is actually a Forester moth on an Everlasting flower!
Thank you, Stephanie. I made the correction. (The Wikimedia description ignored the moth and only described the flower!)