Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Learn-A-Word Wednesday: lepidopteran

lep-i-dop-ter-an

noun:
1: any of a large order (Lepidoptera) of insects comprising of butterflies, moths, and skippers that as adults have four broad or lanceolated wings usually covered with minute overlapping and often brightly covered scales and that as larvae are caterpillars.

Hmm...that whole "minute overlapping and brightly covered scales" thing explains a lot about the "powder" that came off of butterfly wings when I would "pet" them as a child. Of course, the butterflies were already dead, usually the unwitting victims of the minivan's grill.



This lovely blue morpho speciman is available for $8.50 from Ianni Butterfly Enterprises. It originates in Paraguay. One of my favorite species...

1 comment:

Suelle said...

Hi Saranne! I really like your blog! I actually knew the word today, if you can believe that!

It's a huge boost to me that you're reading my blog--it's hard for me to tell if anyone is looking at it since yahoo 360 doesn't have the best tracking program. Thanks a lot!

Suzanne