--- title: Butterflies, moths and ladybirds — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Butterflies, moths and ladybirds», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A fat green caterpillar munches leaves for weeks, then hangs up and hardens into a chrysalis, and inside that little case its body breaks --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Butterflies, moths and ladybirds # Butterflies, moths and ladybirds Lesson 219 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/0/) — A fat green caterpillar munches leaves for weeks, then hangs up and hardens into a chrysalis, and inside that little case its body breaks down and is rebuilt into a butterfly, like a house taken apart and built again as something new. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/1/) — A butterfly lands on a leaf and tastes it with its feet, to check whether it is the right plant for its eggs, and it basks in the sun because a cold butterfly cannot fly. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/2/) — Its wings are covered with thousands of tiny scales, like the tiles on a roof, and those scales are the powder that comes off on your fingers if you touch one. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/3/) — Moths are the butterflies' night-time cousins; only the caterpillars of a few kinds ever eat clothes, and the moths circling a lamp are not in love with it but confused by it. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/4/) — A ladybird's bright red and black coat is a warning sign that says «I taste horrible», and every gardener loves it because it eats thousands of the aphids that suck the plants. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/5/) — A caterpillar turns into a butterfly inside a chrysalis, where its body breaks down and is rebuilt. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/6/) — Butterflies taste with their feet; a female uses them to check that a leaf is the right one for her eggs. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/7/) — Butterflies rest in the sun to warm up, because they cannot fly when they are too cold. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/8/) — A butterfly's wings are covered in tiny scales; the powder on your fingers is scales, and losing many of them can harm the butterfly. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/9/) — Moths get confused by lamps; a 2024 study reported that they turn their backs towards the brightest light, as they would towards the sky, and so circle it. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/10/) — Only the caterpillars of a few kinds of moth eat wool clothes; most moths never touch clothes at all. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/11/) — A ladybird's bright red and black colours warn birds that it tastes bad, and when attacked it oozes a smelly yellow fluid from its legs. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/12/) — Ladybirds eat aphids, and one ladybird can eat thousands of aphids in its life. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/13/) — Ladybirds hibernate in winter in groups, often in hollow stems, under bark or in window frames, and huddling helps them survive the cold. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/14/) — A peacock butterfly flashes the big eye spots on its wings to scare away birds, because the spots look like the eyes of a large animal. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/15/) — Buddleia, called the butterfly bush, is full of nectar and attracts many butterflies to a garden. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/16/) — Butterflies, moths and ladybirds are insects, with six legs and two pairs of wings; a ladybird's front pair are hard red covers over its thin flying wings. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/219-butterflies-moths-and-ladybirds/17/) — A moth's caterpillar often makes a silk cocoon before it changes, but a butterfly's caterpillar makes a bare chrysalis. - ← previous: [Bees and wasps in the garden](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/218-bees-and-wasps-in-the-garden/) - next →: [Spiders and other minibeasts under logs and stones](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/220-spiders-and-other-minibeasts-under-logs-and-stones/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)