# What, exactly, is a moth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 10, 2008, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854 "2008-05-10T22:46:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2008, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/1 "2008-05-10T22:46:29Z")
A question asked on the quiz show [Q.I.](http://www.qi.com/tv/) that I saw recently has me puzzled. For those unfamiliar with the show, host Steven Fry asks questions then penalises the guests if they give the obvious but wrong answer “Name a saint that came from Ireland” “Saint Patrick.” Lose 10 points. St Patrick was a Roman, who was sent to Ireland. He didn’t come from there. Anyway, the question was similar to : “What eats clothes” “Moths” Minus 10 points. Moths don’t eat clothes, only the larvae do. Me-\> :dubious: but surely the word “moth” means the creature itself, throughout it’s life cycle. It’s a moth as a larva, it’s a moth when it pupates, it’s a moth when it spreads its wings. Isn’t it? Am I wrong here? Does the term “moth” properly refer only to the adult form? If I’m wrong, is there an alternative term that describes the creature at all stages? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2008, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/2 "2008-05-10T23:17:36Z")
Dunno - it looks a bit dicey, but yes, generally speaking, the term ‘moth’ describes the adult form (in the same way that a butterfly is distinct from a caterpillar, a frog is distinct from a tadpole and a seed is distinct from a tree). I’d imagine this is because the terms are descriptive of the _form_ rather than the type. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/3 "2008-05-11T01:03:05Z")
Is an egg a chicken? It’s a bit of a linguistic rather than a scientific issue. I would say that most people would probably not consider a moth egg, or a moth larva, or a moth pupa, to be an actual moth. Of course, they are all the same organism in a scientific sense; but they aren’t the same _thing_ in a linguistic sense. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/4 "2008-05-11T01:09:36Z")
QI is careful to phrase their question just so Alan Davies always says the wrong answer. But they have been known to make mistakes. On their DVDs the writers quantify some of the “questionable” answers they have been challenged over, and some of them that sound wrong are actually technically right, and some are in fact wrong after all. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/5 "2008-05-11T01:11:16Z")
It has always seemed odd to me that a mayfly is said to live for just a day, when it lives (in a different form) for a year or so underwater. I understand the distinction \*\*Colibri \*\*is making, however. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/6 "2008-05-11T02:34:38Z")
I’d say that “Moths” was a correct answer. A Moth is a Moth is a Moth. A Moth baby/larvae is still, certainly, a moth, and it’s the[larvae](http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2107.html) that cause the damage, not the adults. So, with clothing, moth damage, by definition, means damage in the larval stage. That’s when that happens. Seems to me that parsing it in terms of adult stage is, um, not so accurate as to what people observe as necessary to deal with detrimental damage. For all practical purposes, to say that Moths do the damage is accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/7 "2008-05-11T03:02:20Z")
What would have happened if the contestant answered “moth larvae” ? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/8 "2008-05-11T03:15:24Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] What would have happened if the contestant answered “moth larvae” ? [/QUOTE] That would have been correct, with “moth” modifying “larvae” … in the same sense that a chicken egg is different from a robin egg. But “moth” by itself is incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/9 "2008-05-11T03:16:59Z")
presumably it would have been a correct answer. But not a particularly interesting one. So, no penalty points taken away. Nor any bonus points given. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/10 "2008-05-11T11:10:49Z")
The silverfish or fishmoth eats clothing. It’s not a moth though. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/11 "2008-05-11T12:51:04Z")
So, if they got the answer wrong, they were off by a great distance as well… since a moth is as good as a mile. Isn’t a myth a female moth? OK, I’ll go have my coffee now. ---
**Author:** ![Bergomum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/34f0e0/32.png) [@Bergomum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bergomum)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/12 "2008-05-11T13:22:04Z")
There’s going to be a false advertising lawsuit about "moth"balls then… ---
**Author:** ![coffeecat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coffeecat/32/3405_2.png) [@coffeecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffeecat)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/13 "2008-05-11T13:28:42Z")
They sometimes eat rugs, when they want to see the floor show. Hey, Dex started it. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/14 "2008-05-11T16:27:25Z")
All I want to know is, how can I get to this show? A quiz show hosted by Stephen Fry? Show me now! ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2008, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/15 "2008-05-11T23:35:16Z")
Tickets sell out within hours of them being made available. It’s one of those shows that are as popular as a concert. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/16 "2008-05-12T02:57:15Z")
So, this still bugs me, as I’m seeing the whole lifecycle of a species as being that creature. Going from entomology to etymology, [Moth - Etymology, Origin & Meaning](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=moth)] from the Etymology dictionary online: > [@](#): > > moth > > O.E. moððe (Northumbrian mohðe), common Gmc. (cf. O.N. motti, M.Du. motte, Ger. Motte “moth”), perhaps related to O.E. maða “maggot,” or from the root of midge (q.v.). Until 16c. used mostly of the larva, usually in reference to devouring clothes (cf. Matt. vi.20). According to this source, the word “Moth” originally refers to the larval form, not the flying adult form. Wooly food for thought. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/17 "2008-05-12T22:14:37Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] What would have happened if the contestant answered “moth larvae” ? [/QUOTE] If Alan Davies had tried to answer ‘Moth Larvae’, the ‘obvious, but wrong’ alarm would have gone off after the first word, drowning out the second. A safer answer - on that show - would have been “the larvae of various insects, including those of moths”. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/18 "2008-05-12T22:23:31Z")
Maybe the show’s writers were thinkig “A caterpillar is not a butterfly, so a moth larva is not a moth.” Not a good way to think but still. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/19 "2008-05-12T22:37:07Z")
[QUOTE=coffeecat] They sometimes eat rugs, when they want to see the floor show. Hey, Dex started it. [/QUOTE] Go stand in the corner anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2008, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854/20 "2008-05-13T00:22:06Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] Maybe the show’s writers were thinkig “A caterpillar is not a butterfly, so a moth larva is not a moth.” Not a good way to think but still. [/QUOTE] I don’t think it’s a bad way to think. The info above abut ‘moth’ oiriginally meaning the larva is interesting, but in modern usage, the term describes the adult form. nothing wrong with having a word that describes something. The problem only arises if people mistakenly think all descriptive terms work in the same way. Which of course they simply don’t. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-moth/448854.md?page=2)