Black arches
The black arches is a moth with white wings covered in black wavy lines that look like little arches. That pattern gave it its name. Its tummy is a pinkish colour with a black band. Its caterpillars love to munch the needles of spruce and pine trees.
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Fun facts
One caterpillar can eat about 1000 spruce needles, and it bites off and drops even more.
When there are very many of them, they can strip so many needles that whole spruce and pine trees die.
Its caterpillars are hairy and grey to blackish, with little red and blue bumps on their backs.
The young caterpillars spend the winter asleep and stay together in groups.
The female moth is bigger than the male and has longer wings.
Most asked questions about Black arches
?Is the black arches moth dangerous?
Not to people. It is a forest pest, because its caterpillars can eat so many needles that trees die.
?What does the black arches caterpillar eat?
Mostly spruce and pine needles, but also leaves of oak, beech, apple, bilberry and other plants.
?How big is the black arches moth?
Its open wings measure about 4 to 5 centimetres from tip to tip.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Lymantria monacha
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Erebidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Erebidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
- Also known as
- Nun moth
Where the facts come from
- Black arches (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Please report references to kulac gmx.at .. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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