Wildlife

As moths are drawn to a flame, people are drawn to moths. Exhibit A: the recent explosion of #MothMemes on social media. From Facebook groups to Reddit forums, fans are sharing photos and starting conversations about Lepidoptera around the world.

Many butterflies and moths are brightly colored because they’re toxic. “The majority of the time, it has to do with chemistry,” said Akito Kawahara, Ph.D., the associate curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History’s McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity. “As caterpillars they eat plant leaves, and they take the toxins from the leaves, and use [the toxins] to display to their predators.”

Moths that ingest toxins are toxic to all life, not just birds or small mammals. Try and eat one, and it’ll make you sick. “The plants are actually using toxins to protect themselves… and some insects have been able to overcome that,” said Kawahara. As an extra layer of protection, some vivid moths mimic the look of toxic ones, even though they’re not poisonous themselves.

There are more than 160,000 known species of moths (and counting). Many of them remain unknown. Their habits and behaviors remain cryptic. Get out and look for the moths in your neighborhood; there are probably gems hidden in a local tree or under your house shutters.

“The level that we’re at in terms of knowledge is nowhere near mammals. We don’t even know how many moths there are,” says Kawahara.

Here are 11 of the more striking species. If you live in the United States, you can probably find several of these near your home.