The First Butterfly and Moth

The butterfly has been around for 140 million years! It has been in its present form for 50 million years and it lived with the dinosaurs for 10 million years. The dinosaurs mysteriously died out, but the butterfly did not. The oldest known butterfly fossil is 40 million years old. We know this because scientists have studied butterfly fossils.

One theory is that moths came from a bug called the caddisfly. It is a water bug. They went on land because there were too many of their species in the water. They were experiencing over population. They developed wings so that it was easier to catch food. That is how the moth came to be according to this theory. There still are regular caddisflies around today. Another theory is that all moths used to have hair. Some flying moths lost their hair and got scales on their wings. Scientists think this type of moth became the butterfly. Butterflies did not have bright colors until they were in their present form. It was the first colorful insect in the world. So you can say it put some color in the world.