moth / mô[unvoicedth]/ • n. (pl. moths / mô[voicedth]z; mô[unvoicedth]s/ ) a chiefly nocturnal insect related to the butterflies. It lacks the clubbed antennae of butterflies and typically has a stout body, drab coloration, and wings that fold flat when resting. ∎ inf. short for clothes moth.PHRASES: like a moth to the flame with an irresistible attraction to someone or something.

MOTH

MOTH (Heb. עָשׁ, ash and סָס, sas; av, jps – "worm"), insect said to eat and destroy clothes (Isa. 51:8; cf. 50:9; Job 13:28). The word ash is also used as a synonym for disintegration and destruction (Hos. 5:12; Ps. 39:12). These names refer to the clothes-moth Tineola, the larva of which feeds on wool. The metamorphosing larva (caterpillar) spins a cocoon, in which it develops into a chrysalis, to be transformed later into an imago. The tottering house of the wicked is compared to a cocoon (Job 27:18). Other species of moth that damage seeds, fruit, and trees are also to be found in Israel. The Talmud speaks of the sasa that infests trees (tj, Ḥag. 2:3, 78a, according to the reading of Ha-Meiri; cf. Yoma 9b: the sas-magor which attacks cedars). The noses that destroys trees (Isa. 10:18) may be the sas, the reference here being to the moth which bores into trees, such as the larvae of the Zeuzera pirina, one of the worst arboreal pests in Israel.

bibliography:

Lewysohn, Zool., 308; F.S. Bodenheimer, Animal and Man in Bible Lands (1960), 78, 114, 140; J. Feliks, Animal World of the Bible (1962), 126f.

[Jehuda Feliks]

moth Insect of the order lepidoptera, found in almost all parts of the world. It is distinguished from a butterfly mainly by its non-clubbed antennae, although there are a few exceptions. Most moths are nocturnal. Like a butterfly, a moth undergoes metamorphosis. It has a long coiled proboscis for sipping liquid food, particularly the nectar of flowers.

moth insect of the genus Tinea or (earlier) its larva OE.; nocturnal lepidopterous insect XVIII. OE. moe, mohe; obscurely rel. to synon. MLG., MDu., (M)HG. motte (Du. mot), ON. motti.