This section is from "The Encyclopaedia Britannica". Also available from Amazon: Great Books of the Western World (60 Volumes).
Butterfly And Moth (the former from "butter" and "fly," an old term of uncertain origin, possibly from the nature of the excrement, or the yellow colour of some particular species; the latter akin to O. Eng. mod, an earth-worm), the common English names applied respectively to the two groups of insects forming the scientific order Lepidoptera (q.v.).
 
Continue to: