Goat moth
The goat moth is a big, heavy moth with greyish brown wings covered in thin dark lines. Its fat caterpillar is reddish purple on the back with a black head. The funny thing is its smell: both the caterpillar and the moth smell like a goat.
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Fun facts
The caterpillar grows to about 10 centimetres long. That is as long as a grown-up's finger.
A caterpillar lives inside a tree trunk for three to five years before it is ready to turn into a moth.
Its holes are found low on the tree, never much higher than a grown-up's shoulders.
When it is ready to change, the caterpillar crawls out of the tree to look for a good spot.
The moths fly from spring until late summer, depending on where they live.
Most asked questions about Goat moth
?Why is it called the goat moth?
Because the caterpillar and the moth both have a smell that reminds people of a goat.
?How big is the goat moth?
Its wings are about 7 to 10 centimetres from tip to tip, which is big for a moth.
?What does the goat moth caterpillar eat?
It eats wood. It bores tunnels inside the trunks and branches of trees.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Cossus cossus
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Cossidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Cossidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa
Where the facts come from
- Cossus cossus (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 J. Lunau. 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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