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How many kinds of butterflies live on Earth? About 18,000
species. But that’s nothing compared to the number of moths.
Some scientists think 250,000 kinds of moths flit and fly
through the night sky.
Adult butterflies and moths have two pairs of wide wings.
And most have long, straw-like mouthparts. But these
graceful insects start their lives in a very different way.
Tiny caterpillars hatch from eggs. The little ones gorge and
grow, munch and
molt
.
After the insects shed their exoskeletons for the last time,
they become
pupae
. Butterflies change inside a
chrysalis
. But
moths rearrange their bodies inside a
cocoon
.
After a few days, weeks, or months, the adults break out of
their cases. Then they soar off into the sky.
Butterflies
and Moths
