The fastest butterflies in the world are the are the skippers which can fly at 37 miles per hour but on the average most butterflies fly about 5 to 12 miles per hour.

The sphinx or hawk moths are the fastest flying moths in the world and can reach speeds up to 35 m.p.h.

The fastest human being in the world is Usain Bolt who can reach 27.8 m.p.h.

The average person typically runs between 12 to 15mph comfortably but can reach 20+mph when really, really scared.

in 1954 Sir Roger Bannister was the first person to run a mile in under four minutes. One of his training methods was to chase Cabbage white butterflies along the English coast while catching them by the wings with his fingers.

 

It has long been carved in stone that butterflies cannot fly if it is below 60°F degrees and below 40°F they become immobile. If that is so then why can they be seen flying at 55°F. What you will notice is that on those below 60°F but still sunny days they will only fly in short bursts moving quickly from one flower to the next so that it can start basking and begin warming itself again for the next dash for nectar. Once the body temp is back up it can zip off to the next flower.

The ideal internal body temperature for a butterfly to fly is between 82 °-102° F. On cooler days butterflies can often be observed “shivering”. While most people would assume that because they are cold they are shivering just as humans would do on a cold day but it is a totally different reaction.

Lepidoptera have two set of flight muscles. The dorsolongitudinal muscles move  the wings downwards during flight and the dorsoventral muscles cause the wings to move back up during flight. In flight, these function as antagonistic muscles to produce the wing flapping motion that gives the butterfly its ability to fly. These muscles are also used in preflight warm up but in a totally different way. During warm-up these muscles are actually contracted so that they to produce no wing movement. The vibrations of these muscles will eventually produce as much heat as needed to elevate thoracic temperatures to flight-levels. This process is referred to as physiological thermoregulation because heat is generated by a physiological process inside the insect. Behavioral thermoregulation of body temperature is controlled by behavioral traits, like basking in the sun.

 

That is all swell and sweet but why can moths be seen flying well below 55°?

It has to do with the positioning of the heart and aorta within the thorax. The circulatory system of butterflies and moths makes a loop through the center of the thorax. In moths that loop is a lot tighter, or closer together than it is in butterflies. Since the loop is closer together in moths it acts as natural heat exchange and converts the abdomen into both a heat sink and a heat radiator that helps the moth to maintaining a stable thoracic temperature under adverse temperature conditions. After the hemolymph is warmed up by the flight it returns to the abdomen to eventually return to the flight muscles. But remember that old loopy thing? Well as the cooler hemolymph returns to the thorax it sucks up heat from the recent heated up hemolymph returning from the flight muscles and starts to warm up even more and goes through the thorax at a higher temperature then it did before and eventually reaching optimal flight temperature much quicker and beyond the abilities of  butterflies.

 

The closeness of ‘the loop’ varies greatly from species to species which allows some moths to fly at much colder temperatures than others.

Crambidae,  or grass moths are good to about 48°

Erebidae,  such as Underwings, Wooly bears, Tussock  are good to about 46°

Tortricidae are the moths that look like arrowheads when resting, are good to34°

Gelechiidae are micro moths many of which attack stored grains can fly at 32°

Noctuidae are leaf miners and stem- or leaf-borers and also good to fly at 32°

 

Last but not least are Geometridae. The caterpillars of geometers are those familiar little green or brown inchworms.Geometrid moths are so loopy that they can be observed on the wing all the way down to 28°

Woolly Bears are the champs of cold weather moths. Woolies can be found as far north as the arctic circle and because of the harsh conditions it can take them up to 14 YEARS to complete their life cycle.