Sycamore moth
The sycamore moth is a grey night moth with white back wings. Its caterpillar is the real show-off: it is covered in long, fluffy yellow and orange hairs, with white spots edged in black along its back. It looks like a little walking paintbrush.
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Fun facts
The grown-up moths fly at night from June to August and come to lights.
It spends the winter as a pupa, waiting for summer.
Even with its bright colours, the caterpillar is not poisonous.
It was one of the moths named by Carl Linnaeus in 1758.
Most asked questions about Sycamore moth
?Is the sycamore moth caterpillar poisonous?
No. Its hairs can make your skin itch if you handle it a lot, but it is not poisonous.
?What does the sycamore moth caterpillar eat?
Leaves of maples and horse-chestnut, and also lime, mulberry and oak.
?How big is a sycamore moth?
Its wings are about 4 to 4.5 centimetres from tip to tip.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Acronicta aceris
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Noctuidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Noctuidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia
- Also known as
- The sycamore
Where the facts come from
- Sycamore (moth) (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 Fvlamoen. 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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