The order Lepidoptera includes butterflies, moths, and skippers, with about 180,000 species. They are characterized by their scaly wings. The life cycle consists of egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa, and adult stages. Lepidopterans live on every continent except Antarctica and come in a wide range of sizes. Many are important pollinators or pests of agriculture and forestry, with the caterpillar stage causing damage by eating plants. A few species such as silkworms provide economic benefits to humans.

1. Lepidopteran, (order Lepidoptera), of about 180,000 species of butterflies, moths, and skippers.
After Coleoptera, the beetles it comes next in terms of order.
Figure 1White admiral butterfly (Limenitis arthemis), a common North American species. source:
Stephen Dalton—NHPA/Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The name Lepidoptera is the derivative of Greek word meaning “scaly winged,” and refers to the
characteristic covering of microscopic dust like scales on the wings. The skippers are a
worldwide group intermediate between butterflies and moths. Except few moths, all adult
lepidopterans have two pairs of wings. Because of their day-flying habits and bright colors’, the
butterflies are more familiar than the chiefly night-flying and dull-colored moths, but the latter
are far more varied and abundant.
Figure 2 Small skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris) source: Stephen Dalton—NHPA/Encyclopædia
Britannica, Inc.

2. Life cycle:
The life cycle of lepidopterans consists of four stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis),
and adult (imago). The larvae mostly feed on foliage, although many species
eat stems, roots, fruits, or flowers. A number of moth and a few butterfly larvae are
serious pests in agriculture and forestry. The adults of many species are important beacause of
their role in pollination, which occurs as they visit flowers for nectar. In most
land environments the lepidopterans are ecologically important because they transform large
amounts of plant matter into animal matter and in turn serve as food for many other groups of
animals.
Size and distribution:
Moths, butterflies, and skippers show great diversity in size and development rates. Some moths
have wingspans as small as 4 mm (0.13 inch), whereas the largest moths and butterflies measure
nearly 30 cm (about 1 foot). Fast-developing species may complete their development in as little
as three weeks, while slower ones may require as long as two or even three years.
Lepidopterans live on every continent except Antarctica. Though they are far more numerous
and diversified in the tropics, some species survive at the limits of polar vegetation. There are
many successful species in nearly every environment, from arid deserts and high mountaintops

3. to marshes and tropical rainforests. Most have adapted for living in relatively restricted
ecological niches and may be limited to only one or a small group of food plants, often to only a
single part of one plant. They are therefore rarely abundant in more than one type of habitat.
However, a few species have broader food habits and may occasionally reach peaks of abnormal
abundance and defoliate large areas of deciduous forest or grassland. Some of the insects from
Lepidoptera are injurious to human in the field of agriculture.
The large family-level groups and many smaller ones are worldwide in distribution, with owlet
moths (family Noctuidae), measuring worm moths (family Geometridae), pyralid, or snout,
moths (family Pyralidae), brush-footed butterflies (family Nymphalidae), and skippers (family
Hesperiidae) being dominant elements of the insect fauna everywhere. A few families are
characteristically more abundant in one faunal region than in others. Central and South
America are characterized by great diversity of American false tiger moths (family Notodonidae)
and ctenuchid moths (family Arctiidae). The North American (Nearctic) and Eurasian
(Palaearctic) families show much evidence of close connections, chiefly between Asia and
western North America. Each region has, however, many distinctive genera.
Many lepidopterans exist only in isolated colonies as relict (remnant) populations, cut off from
relatives elsewhere by geologic or climatic changes. Australia and New Zealand have
unusually diverse relict populations of the primitive mandibulate moths (family Micropterigidae)
and swifts, or ghost moths (family Hepialidae). In North America, Europe, and Asia, many relict
species have survived since the last ice age on isolated southern mountaintops.
Lepidoptera economic Importance:
Many hundreds of Lepidoptera injure plants useful to humans, including some of the most
important sources of food, fabrics, fodder, and timber. The great majority of the injurious
species are moths, and the detrimental life stage is always the larva. However, unlike members of
other insect orders, lepidopterans do not act as carriers of plant diseases, nor are any of them
parasites of or injurious to humans. However, some species feed on open wounds or bodily
secretions of wild or domestic animals.

4. The list of valuable plants subject to damage by lepidopterans is a long one, including many
grains, sugar beets and sugarcane, cotton, tobacco, some root crops and leaf crops, many fruits,
and timber and shade trees. The damage may involve the leaves, stems, roots, or fruit. Woolens,
furs, silk, and even feathers are eaten by fungus moths (see tineid moths) of several genera
(clothes moths). The greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella) causes considerable damage
in beehives.
A few Lepidoptera are directly beneficial to humans. Nearly all silk is obtained from
the domesticated silkworm (Bombyx mori), which is originally from China. Other silks such as
shantung and tussah are the products of various Asiatic giant silkworm
moths (family Saturniidae). The larvae and sometimes the adults of a few species are used for
food. The larvae of one skipper (Rhopalocampta libeon, or Caeliades libeon) are collected in
large quantities in the Congo, and the 10-cm (4-inch) caterpillars of giant skippers (family
Megathymidae), known in Mexico as gusanos de magüey, are both consumed domestically and
canned and exported for consumption as hors d’oeuvres. The South American cactus
moth (Cactoblastis cactorum) has been highly beneficial in weed control, clearing more than 150
million ha (60 million acres) in Australia of alien prickly pear cactus. Doubtless, humans also
benefit from much unrecognized weed eating by caterpillars and flower pollination by adults.
Lepidoptera economic importance in forestry:
Out of about 1,000 butterflies and 10,000 moths Out of about 1,000 butterflies and 10,000 moths in
Malaysia,onlyfeware forestpests.Mostare beneficial as Pollinators Preventing dominance in diverse
tropical forest Food for vertebrates. Those labelled as pests in:1; Forest Plantations 2; Forest
Rehabilitation. Caterpillars –1. Defoliators:mostlymoths(e.g.Pyralidae),few butterflies (e g Pieridae)
few butterflies (e.g. Pieridae) – 2. Stem-/ Shoot-Borers: moths (e.g. Cossidae, Hepialidae) – 3. Seed
Predators: micromoths