I just swatted a moth that was in my kitchen and noticed that there was, what I will call dust, that came off the wings. Is this actually dust or something else? Does this have a purpose?
In: Biology
It’s a well known fact that if you collect and snort enough of this dust you’ll gain similar abilities as were documented in the true story ‘Peter Pan’.
Moths are butterfly ghosts. The dust is ectoplasm. You can swat it all you want but it won’t leave your home until it’s finished whatever business it left behind in life.
Addendum: this is exactly how I explain things to my 5 year old nephew.
Is it bad if you touch them? Like just brushing a little “dust” off. I always learned not to touch them because if you mess with that dust they either die or can’t fly anymore.
Moth and butterfly wings are covered in tiny scales. This is actually where the group gets its scientific name, Lepidoptera, lepis (scale), and pteron (wing) in Greek. The scales cover the wings and body of the insect, and help keep them warm, and give the insect colouring, which can be used for things like display, camouflage, or mimicking another animal.
The scales brush off at the slightest touch, which is why you get “dusty” from holding moths and butterflies. If you rub their wings, you can brush all the scales off a section, and the wing underneath is clear, like a fly or wasp wing. [Some moths have clear windows in their wings already](https://www.google.com/search?q=clearwing+moth&sxsrf=ALeKk00bhao30L-OsZ3bR9KojnXSTTuMmA:1627186961885&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjt_OHmr_3xAhXUrJ4KHfDWD4AQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1649&bih=899), many of these clear-winged moths are trying to mimic wasps so they look scary and other animals don’t try to eat them.
Moths are often covered in fine scales or hairs. These absorb sound and make them less visible to bats, which use echolocation to find them in the dark.
Soft things absorb sound very well, because the hairs slow down the vibration of the air at a microscopic level. Compare to hard surfaces which sounds bounces off of very easily. It’s the same reason that a tile bathroom is very echoey, but a pillow fort is very muted and quiet.
In this case, a bat makes a squeak sound and listens for the tiny echo that bounces off the bug. Bugs that are “like a tile bathroom” will make a strong echo that the bat can find (and eat). Bugs that are “like pillow forts” will make no echo, and the bat won’t know it’s there. If bats are eating the more echoey bugs, only the quietest ones will be left. And that’s why moths are hairy.
Owls’ plumage is also soft for a similar reason— they need to be silent in flight, but in this case it’s so they can silently swoop down on their prey without scaring it away.
The dust is actually teeny tiny little scales that brush off when you touch the wings. The scales contribute to the color and pattern of moths and butterflies.
Why would you swat a moth???
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