Outforia Quicktake: Key Takeaways
- Moths and butterflies differ in that moths typically have larger, stouter bodies and furry antennae. They also hold their wings differently.
- There are around 160,000 species of moths, significantly more than the 17,500 species of butterflies.
- Moths are not all nocturnal; many species are active during the day.
- Moths show remarkable diversity in their behavior, adaptations, and interactions with their environment. For example, some moths use mimicry for protection, while others are known for their symbiotic relationships or their destructiveness as pests.
- Moths are also known for the wide variety of patterns and colors on their wings, from bright and colorful to plain and dull.
Moths come from the order Lepidoptera, along with butterflies and skippers. There are a couple of day-flying moths, but not many.
Conversely, there are a couple of night-flying butterflies. So, if this doesn’t tell us which is which, what makes a moth a moth and a butterfly a butterfly?
Moths have stouter bodies than butterflies. They have furry, thick antennae, while butterflies have club-shaped antennae. Butterflies hold their wings vertically above their bodies, while moths hold them flat or in a tent shape over their bodies.
There are 160,000 moth species in the world. On the other hand, there are only 17,500 species of butterflies. You’re more likely to see butterflies, though, as they are active during the daytime.
Read on to discover the weirdest and most beautiful species of moths.
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1. Luna Moth (Actias luna)
Luna Moths use their pale green wings to deflect the attention of their predators, bats. The moth twirls its long “tails” on the ends of its wings in circles. This confuses the bats, and they miss their mark.
Luna Moths come from North America. They have a 4.5-inch (11.43-cm) wingspan—that’s the length of an iPhone.
Luna Moths do not eat at all as adults. They eat large amounts of hickory leaves, walnuts, paper birch, and sweet gum as caterpillars. After a month, they spin a cocoon and metamorphose into adult moths.
2. Domestic Silk Moth (Bombyx mori)
Domestic Silk moths no longer exist in the wild. This species is famed for being the caterpillar that produces silk from its cocoon. People have used this silk as fine clothing for thousands of years in Asia. This is known as sericulture.
There are now many silkworms in the silk industry in Asia and Australia. Domestic silk moths no longer have the ability to fly. Each caterpillar can produce half a mile of silk per cocoon.
To remove the silk from the caterpillar’s cocoon intact, boiling is a common method. You can now buy silk made from caterpillars that survived to grow to adulthood.
They are fussy eaters. They will eat only the leaves of the white mulberry, plus a few leaves of Osage orange and lettuce. They eat most of this in their larval stage.
3. European Grain Moth (Nemapogon granella)
The European Grain Moth is a pest to humans. Its caterpillars munch on stored grain. It has a wide geographical range, living in Europe, Argentina, North America, Northern Asia, and Australia.
The adult moth has a wingspan of 9–18 mm (0.35–0.7 inches) and a body length of 7 mm (0.27 inches). Its body and wings are brown, black, and gray.
The caterpillars eat soy, wheat, barley, nuts, rice, mushrooms, and dried fruit. It’s a versatile feeder. The larvae cause smelly, clumped grains due to their excrement.
They can be found in granaries, mills, warehouses, elevators, and even wine cellars.
4. Death’s Head Hawkmoth (Acherontia atropos)
The Death’s Head Hawkmoth is so named because it has a pattern that looks like a white skull on its dark, almost black body. It lives in Southern Europe, though it can be found in the UK.
Adult Death’s Head Hawk Moths can squeak when alarmed. They do this by expelling air through their proboscis, which is like a tongue. This works in the same way as someone blowing through the reed in a flute.
Their wingspan is 80 to 120 mm (3.14 to 4.72 inches)
The caterpillars are large and bright pale yellow with bold markings. They feed on potato and Deadly nightshade plants as well as other Solanaceae (tomato family) plants.
5. Bella Moth (Utetheisa ornatrix)
The beautiful Bella Moth is diurnal, which means you can see it flying around in the daytime. It’s also known as the Rattlebox Moth. It’s found across the States, from Nebraska to Connecticut, Arizona, New Mexico, and Florida.
The adult moth is quite small, with a wingspan of only 3 to 4 cm (1.18 to 1.57 inches). The front wings are patterned yellow and black, and the rear wings are a soft pink.
The larvae feed on native Crotalaria bushes. When they have finished with the leaves, they burrow into the seed pods and eat those too.
The seed pods contain poisonous pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which the larva takes into itself and uses to fend off predators.
6. Cinnabar Moth (Tyria jacobaeae)
The Cinnabar Moth is a brightly colored, smart-looking moth in black and red. This moth will fly during the daytime, but it’s also active at night. Look for it in fields and patches of waste ground.
It has a 35 to 40 mm (1.3 to 1.57 inch) wingspan. You can find Cinnabar Moths in the UK—England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.
The moth got its name from the mineral dye cinnabar, which dyed cloth a bright, deep red color.
Cinnabar moth caterpillars are bright yellow and black. These are nature’s warning colors, and indeed, the caterpillars are poisonous. They get the poison from Groundsel plants, which are their food plants.
7. Lunar Hornet Moth (Sesia bembeciformis)
The Lunar Hornet Moth looks scarily like a hornet or wasp, with the same yellow and black body coloration. It even has transparent wings like a wasp.
This fools predators into thinking the moth is a wasp with a painful sting. They will then leave it alone. This is called mimicry.
It has a 30-35 mm wingspan. It’s in the Clearwing family of moths (Sesiidae). The caterpillars eat willow and poplar tree leaves.
Another British native moth, it can be found in fens, heaths, woodlands, and scrub across the UK. It’s diurnal—active by day.
8. Atlas Moth (Attacus atlas)
The patterns on the wings of the Atlas Moth look like eyes, which prompted some biologists to assume it looks like a cobra to fend off predators like birds.
Others are not so convinced. It only looks like a cobra head in profile, with the cobra heads at the top of its wings.
The Atlas Moth comes from Southeast Asia. It has a mighty 10-inch (25.4-cm) wingspan, making it the second-largest moth in the world. It belongs to the Saturniidae family, or the Giant Silkworm Moths.
Caterpillars of the Atlas Moth can reach 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick. The adult moth cannot feed; its proboscis doesn’t even work. The adult moth can live only a few weeks before it runs out of energy and dies.
9. Madagascan Sunset Moth (Chrysiridia rhipheus)
The Madagascan Sunset Moth is one of the world’s most brightly colored moths. It has all the colors of the rainbow on its wings.
It’s in the Uraniidae family of moths. It was originally thought to come from China, but it is actually native to Madagascar.
This moth reaches 7–11 cm (2.7–4.33 inches) across its wingspan. It feeds on plants of the genus Omphalea. It is a day-flying moth. In 1723, it was categorized as a butterfly. In 1823, it was recategorized as a moth.
The caterpillar is blotched with black and white. It mimics a bird’s droppings to confuse predators. Nobody wants to eat poop. When this moth is eaten, it’s eaten by wasps, birds, and ants.
10. Codling Moth (Cydia pomonella)
The Codling Moth is the most destructive moth species in North America. It eats the leaves and fruit of agricultural crops such as apples and pears. After infestation, the fruit is unsellable. The larva lives in the core, eating outward.
The Codling moth has a 22 mm (0.8 inch) wingspan, so it’s quite small for a moth. The moth itself is banded with nondescript browns. It holds its wings in a tent shape over its back. It comes from the family Tortricidae.
Adult moths emerge in May–June and lay eggs on surrounding fruit. It can be controlled with nematode worms and pesticides. Pheromone traps catch male moths that are looking for love.
11. Peppered Moth (Biston betularia)
The Peppered Moth is famous for showing just how well natural selection works. At first, before the industrial revolution in the UK, peppered moths were speckled black and white.
After the Industrial Revolution, the same moth was a matte charcoal color. The moths were blending in with the polluted bark on the trees.
The Peppered Moth even has spikes on its legs, making them look like thorns from a rose bush. It has a wingspan of 4.4–5.6 cm (1.73–2.20 inches).
It feeds on silver birch, oak, hawthorn, and bramble. You can find it on grassland, in woodland, and in gardens.
12. Case-Bearing Carpet Moth (Tinea pellionella)
This nondescript-looking adult moth has more interesting larvae. The larvae make cases of silk, which they carry with them as a portable shelter. They are able to turn around inside this case and feed from both ends.
The Clothes Moth adores eating wool carpets and wool clothes, which it can rapidly destroy.
It lives throughout the British Isles in granaries, houses, bird nests, barns, and warehouses. It has a 9–16 mm (0.35–0.62 inch) wingspan.
Clothes and Carpet Moths can even eat dyed fabric without harm. Instead, the moth caterpillar will go the same color as the fabric it is eating.
In winter, these moths are dormant, but in a nice warm house, they don’t need to do this and carry on eating your furniture all year round.
13. Elephant Hawk Moth (Deilephila elpenor)
The Elephant Hawk Moth is a fantastic-looking moth, but you won’t see it much as it is nocturnal. It is frequent in the UK but can also be found in Europe and Asia. It has excellent eyesight in the dark.
They feed on honeysuckle and other flowers shaped like tubes. They have a wingspan of 45–60 mm (11.77–2.3 inches).
The caterpillar and the adult both have eye spots on them. In the case of the caterpillar, the eye spots look like the face of a snake, dissuading birds from snatching at it.
14. Hummingbird Hawk Moth (Macroglossum stellatarum)
This moth feeds just like a hummingbird, unfurling its long proboscis to drink nectar from flowers. It hovers on powerful wings. These even hum when they are flapped hard.
The Hummingbird Hawk Moth flies by day. It is the only hummingbird in Europe. Hummingbirds exist only in the New World; there are none in the Old World. It has a wingspan of 50–58 mm (1.9–2.2 inches).
The caterpillars feed on lady’s bedstraw, madder, and hedge bedstraw. It is occasionally seen laying eggs on Red Valerian. Despite its exotic appearance, this moth can be found all over the UK. It originates in North Africa and Southern Europe.
15. White Witch Moth (Thysania agrippina)
The White Witch Moth holds the title for having the biggest wingspan of any moth worldwide. It is known as the “Ghost Moth”. Its wingspan can reach a whopping 30 cm (11.8 inches), the length of a ruler.
It lives in South America, from Mexico to Brazil and Uruguay. You can find it in Texas in North America too. Its preferred habitat is the rainforest. The White Witch Moth is from the Erebidae family of moths.
The larvae have a single horn on their last segment. They have a yellow head and a dark green body. Before they pupate, the larvae turn bright red.
16. Spanish Moon Moth (Graellsia isabellae)
The Spanish Moon Moth is also known as the Stained Glass Moth. One look, and you will know why. This moth is regarded as one of the most beautiful in Europe. It’s In the Saturnidae (silk moth) family.
The Spanish Moon Moth has a wingspan of 6–10 cm(2.3–3.9 inches). It’s legal to collect and keep this moth as a pet.
In some countries, it is protected. It is quite challenging to rear and breed.
It’s found only in mountainous regions in the Alps and Pyrenees. The larvae feed on pine trees. In the wild, they feed on only Scots Pine and Black Pine. In captivity, they will eat many kinds of pine.
17. Mandolin Moth (Rileyiana fovea)
The Mandolin Moth is named due to the male’s habit of serenading the female moth. He does this with a knot on one of his wings. His wings are concave instead of flat. He rubs it across his hind leg to make a noise. This attracts and impresses the female. Hopefully.
The Mandolin Moth lives on Oak and Beech trees. It has a wingspan of 33–34 mm. The male and the female look similar, but the male has a longer body with a tuft of pale fur on its rear.
It comes from the Noctuidae family, or “owlet moths.” These all have drab coloration and look roughly like owls.
You can find the Mandolin Moth in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. Austria and Bulgaria are good places to find them.
18. Heterogynis penella
This obscure species of moth deserves a mention for its cannibalistic offspring. The female moth is flightless.
She is also legless and spends her whole life in or near her cocoon. Once she has laid her eggs and they hatch, the larvae will eat their mother. This gives them a good meal of fat to start their lives.
Males have a wingspan of 22–25 mm (0.8–0.9 inches). They are half the size of the females. This is a case of extreme sexual dimorphism, where the female and male look very different.
You can find Heterogynis penella in hot, dry forests near the Southern Alps and the Mediterranean.
19. Vampire Moth or Noctuid Calpe (Calyptra eustrigata)
The Noctuid Calpe Moth pierces flesh to feed on the blood of humans and animals. It will drink a human’s blood for up to an hour. It’s not the only parasitic moth that lives on animals; there’s another that drinks tear fluid from eyeballs.
It lives in Southeast Asia, in places like Sri Lanka and Malaysia. Its wingspan is 40–45 mm (1.6–1.7 inches). It’s from the family Erebidae.
When it pierces your skin, it leaves an itchy mark. The area around the bite can go hard for around 5 weeks. This is the only species of moth with a proboscis hard and strong enough to get through skin.
20. Sloth Moth (Cryptoses Choloepi Dyar)
The Sloth Moth is symbiotic with the three-toed sloth, which lives high in the canopy of trees in South America.
The sloth only comes down the tree once a week to relieve itself. Why it does this and doesn’t just poop from the branches has nothing to do with this moth.
The male has a 13–15 mm wingspan. This is an example of a coprophilic (excreta-loving) moth.
The moth needs the sloth to go down the tree trunk. The female moths lay their eggs in the pile of sloth dung at the base of the tree. The caterpillars now have a rich food source.
The sloth gets a carpet of nutrient-rich algae on its fur due to the Sloth Moth. It eats this to supplement its nutrient-poor diet.
21. Twin-spotted Sphinx Moth (Smerinthus jamaicensis)
The twin-spotted sphinx moth hides a beautiful pair of rosy pink hindwings with blue-black spots. The rest of the moth is fairly dull gray-white.
It has a wingspan of 3/4–3 1/4 inches (4.5–8.3 cm). The Twin Spotted Sphinx Moth lives across North America, from Nova Scotia to Northern Florida, Manitoba to Arizona. It favors forests and shrubland near lakes and rivers.
The caterpillars enjoy eating fruit trees, including apples, peaches, and plums. They will also graze on willow, birch, ash, and elm. This moth is in the Sphingidae family.
22. Water Veneer Moth (Acentria ephemerella)
The Water Veneer moth is very special. Its caterpillars live underwater as well as on land. They don’t have gills, but they can breathe oxygen through their skin. They hatch from eggs under the water and rise to the surface to pupate.
They have a wingspan of 11–13 mm (0.4–0.5 inches).
Water Veneer Moths live in the UK. The larvae feed on pondweed and Canadian waterweed. The females come in two forms: wingless and winged. The males mate with the females on the water’s surface.
23. Monopis Species
These little moths include the Wool Moth, the Bird’s Nest Moth and the Skunkback Monopis. The reason they are so fascinating has to do with the way they breed.
All other moth species lay eggs, but some Monopis species from the Indo-Australian region “give birth” to live larvae that have hatched inside them.
It has a wingspan of 13–20 mm (0.5–0.7 inches). The actual moth is drab and carries its wings in a tent shape over its back. You will most often see Monopis species in the UK, but also in Indo-Australia.
Monopis laevigella lives near bird’s nests. It is also called the “Skin Moth.” Its favorite food is owl pellets (excreta). Many of these species feed on animal waste, such as fur and hair.
24. Rosy Maple Moth (Dryocampa rubicunda)
The Rosy Maple Moth has to take the title of the world’s cutest moth. It’s really fluffy, pink, and yellow. It has huge black eyes.
It has a wingspan of 1 5/16–2 1/16 inches (3.4–5.2 cm). The caterpillars feed on maple and oak trees. The adults don’t feed.
This moth is native to the southern part of North America. That encompasses Nova Scotia to Minnesota, then Florida and east Texas.
The adults emerge from their cocoons in mid-afternoon and are mating by evening. The females lay 10–30 eggs the next morning.
25. Lymantrine Moth (Hesperia Busiris)
This moth looks like a ghost with its white, transparent wings. It looks like the fine lace of a wedding veil.
Accordingly, it is also rare. This moth was thought to be a butterfly for many years. It’s also known as the Fairy Lymnatrine.
It is so rare that there are not many photos of it. It comes from the Yunnan region of China. Lymantria means “destroyer.” Some of the species in this family can defoliate whole forests of trees.
It comes from the family Lymantriinae, subfamily Erebidae. These moths are known as “tussock moths.” They often have caterpillars with irritating hairs that cause skin rashes. This wards off predators.
26. Cream-spot Tiger Moth (Arctia villica)
The Cream Spot Tiger Moth is a pretty moth found in the UK. It is so named because it resembles a tiger’s color and stripes. It is most frequent in southern England and Wales. It is most active in May and June.
It has a wingspan of 45 to 60 mm (1.77 to 2.3 inches). Its favorite habitat is grassland and woodland.
The Cream Spot Tiger Moth’s caterpillars are brown and hairy. They feed on a variety of herbaceous plants like dead nettles and dandelions. They spend most of a year as larvae, then emerge to become adult moths after 20 days in the cocoon.
27. Corn Earworm Moth (Helicoverpa zea)
The Corn Earworm Moth is another ‘pest’ species. It feeds on ears of corn as a caterpillar.
At first, the immature larvae feed together, but as they mature, they turn cannibalistic. They attack and kill each other until there is only one larva left in each ear of corn.
The Corn Earworm Moth has a wingspan of 32 to 45 mm (1.25 to 1.77 inches) It’s found throughout North America, except for Canada and Alaska. In cold climates, the larvae die over the winter.
It’s not too fussy as regards host plants; it will live on most vegetable plants, including broccoli, tomato, okra, melon, and cabbage.
28. Barberry Carpet Moth (Pareulype berberata)
The Barberry Carpet Moth is not very common but is getting more so as its food plant, barberry, is replanted in the UK.
There are two times in the year that adults will fly: May to June and July to August. This moth has a subtle patterned coloration of browns.
Barberry was found to host stem rust disease, which has affected cereal crops in the past. Today’s crops are resistant to sem rust, so barberry bushes and the Barberry Carpet Moth are making a comeback.
The larvae feed all summer, then overwinter in cocoons just below the surface of the soil.
29. Tear-Drinking Moth (Hemiceratoides hieroglyphica)
The Tear-Drinking Moth does just that. Adults drink the tears of animals such as birds. In fact, the birds don’t even wake up while the moth projects its proboscis into the corners of their eyes. Even though it’s festooned with barbs and hooks.
The tear-drinking Moth comes from Madagascar. It comes from the Calpini family, which includes blood-sucking and fruit-feeding noctuidae.
The behavior is thought to be for acquiring salt and trace minerals that the moth needs. This could enhance its reproductive success.
30. Morgan’s Sphinx Moth (Xanthopan morgani)
Morgan’s Sphinx Moth has a foot-long proboscis (tongue). It uses this monster appendage to reach down into the orchid it feeds on, Angraecum sesquipedale.
By doing this, it also pollinates the orchid. It has the longest tongue of an insect—a full 30cm.
The Morgan’s Sphinx moth also hails from Madagascar. The subspecies there is known as Wallace’s Sphinx Moth, which is endemic to Madagascar. It has a wingspan of 16 cm (6.2 inches).
Charles Darwin predicted the existence of this moth without ever seeing it. He was given some of the orchids, and he predicted a moth with a tongue long enough to pollinate them.
31. Giant Wood Moth (Endoxyla cinereus)
The Giant Wood Moth is the heaviest moth in the world. At 30 grams, it’s 50% bigger than a robin. It comes from Australia and New Zealand.
This moth only lasts for a few days after becoming an adult. It dies after it lays its eggs. Females are twice as big as males, with a wingspan of 25 cm.
Aborigines in Australia hunt down the caterpillar of this moth as food. The caterpillar is huge and very nutritious. It feeds on eucalyptus trees.
32. Stigmella maya
There are 62,000 species of micromoths worldwide, including this species. There are many more tropical regions that have not even been named.
The only way to identify these tiny moths is to dissect them and look at differences in their genitalia.
This tiny moth could well be the smallest known moth in science, according to the Natural History Museum in London. It has a wingspan of only 2.5 mm. Moths this small are in their own category of microlepidoptera.
David Lees of NHM is an expert in the field of microlepidoptera.
33. Oak Processionary Moth (Thaumetopoea processionea)
Oak processionary Moth caterpillars feed on oak trees. They form long, wide chains of caterpillars when moving from tree to tree.
This moth is both a pest to oak trees and a hazard to humans, as its hairs are made more itchy by a protein called thaumetopoein.
Thaumetopoein causes skin rashes, breathing difficulties, and sore throats. This is worse in May and June.
The caterpillars shed these hairs when alarmed, meaning they get into everything as they are airborne. The adult moth has a wingspan of 30–32 mm (1.18–1.25 inches).
Oak Processionary Moth caterpillars can easily completely strip an oak of its leaves, leaving it vulnerable to disease and drought. They are quite fussy eaters and will only eat other broadleaf trees if there are no oak leaves around.
34. Bag Shelter Moth (Ochrogaster lunifer)
The Bag Shelter Moth’s caterpillar is known as the Processionary Caterpillar. It munches its way through Australian trees such as wattle. They are especially common near Brisbane.
The irritating hairs of the moth and caterpillar cause rashes on human skin.
The female moth actually covers her eggs with a mixture of irritating hairs and silk, which is a great way to put off predators. They can even cause asthma. It has a wingspan of 5.5 cm (2.6 inches).
The male and female look very similar. The male has a few white hairs on his abdomen, right at the tip. The caterpillars are famous for waking up in processions. They do this, nose to tail, every time they move to a new tree.
35. Goat Moth (Cassus cassus)
The Goat Moth is named for the smell the adults give off, which is like the smell of a goat. You can notice these larvae as many feed on one tree, and you can see their exit holes in the bark. They enjoy sallow, willow, poplar, and ash trees.
The adult moth has a wingspan of 64–84 mm (2.51–3.3 inches). The Leopard and oat moth families are called the Cossidae. Only one of the three species is found in the UK.
Goat Moth larvae feed on wood. They are dark red and large, at 10 cm, fitting across a human hand. Wood is not very nutritious, so it takes them 4 years to mature.
When the caterpillar is ready to mature into a moth, it digs a hole in the tree at the base.
36. Giant Leopard Moth (Hypercompe scribonia)
The Giant Leopard Moth is the largest eastern Tiger Moth in the US. It’s in the Erebidae family, of which the Arctiinae are a subfamily. It’s a nocturnal moth. Males will be attracted to bright lights at night.
The Giant Leopard Moth is found from Southern Ontario to Florida, Minnesota, and Texas. The wingspan is 5.7-9.1 cm (approx. 2.25-3.6 in.)
When young, its caterpillars are banded with black and orange. When older, they are covered with black bristles. When they reach this stage, they are known as “wooly bears.”
37. Polyphemus Moth (Antheraea polyphemus)
The Polyphemus Moth is named after the giant Polyphemus from Greek mythology. The giant was a cyclops; he had one single eye on his forehead. This moth, admittedly, has two eye spots, but seen from the side, they resemble one.
The wingspan of the adult moth is 10 to 15 cm (approximately 4 to 6 inches). Caterpillars are protected by their green coloration. One of the trees the Polyphemus Moth feeds on is the plum.
The Polyphemus Moth is a large and attractive silkmoth.
They have a wide distribution in North America. They are present in all 48 lower states except for Nevada and Arizona. You can also find them in Southern Canada, down to Mexico.
38. Lichen Moth (Barsine orientalis)
This delicate moth has a beautiful pattern of gold, orange, and black. It lives in tropical climates. It has round, flat wings that fit across its back in a triangle shape.
The Lichen Moth can be found in Yunnan Province, China. It has a wingspan of 2.5–2.7 cm (1 inch).
There is argument over the taxonomy of this moth,as a new subspecies or species has recently been discovered. It’s also known as the Footman Moth, probably because footmen had such smart uniforms.
39. Ypsolopha melanofuscella
This Russian species has only recently been discovered along with Ypsolopha straminella. Both of these species of moth have interesting behavior. They stick their rear end in the air and their head and antennae down when on a leaf surface.
There are 30 species in this genus in Russia. The caterpillars make cradle-like cocoons before hatching. There is no information on the size of it, as this is so new to science.
This photo shows Ypsolopha parallella, a related species.
40. Mopane Emperor Moth (Gonimbrasia belina)
The Mopane Emperor Moth caterpillar is widely consumed as a delicious street food snack in Africa. They can be found in the northern parts of South Africa, as well as Zimbabwe, northern Namibia, and Botswana.
The main predators of this moth are humans and birds, as well as fungi.
The adult moth is fawn-colored, with a wingspan of 120 mm (4.72 inches).
The larvae are harvested at the beginning of the rainy season. They are usually harvested when they are in their 5th instar (growth stage).
This is because at this point they don’t need their guts purged, as they do before heading underground. A mopane worm is 70% pure protein.
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Types of Moths FAQs
What kills moths instantly?
White vinegar kills moth eggs and larvae by changing the pH of the surface they are on.
Commercial pesticides kill moths quickly, but they aren’t good for the rest of the insects in your garden either. Machine washing on a hot cycle or freezing items of clothing also kills moth larvae.
What’s the prettiest moth?
There are many attractive moths, so this question is quite subjective. The Madagascan Sunset Moth has many colors.
The Spanish Moon Moth has an elegant outline and strongly bordered wings, making it look like stained glass. The Bella Moth has soft, dusky pink and speckles of black and white.
What do moths eat in the forest?
Most moths are herbivorous. They only eat plant matter such as stems, leaves, fruit, flowers, and roots. There are just a couple of moths in the world that feed on animal matter such as tears or blood.
Are moths only active at night?
Many moths are nocturnal. There are some that fly during the day, so this is not a reliable indicator of whether a flying insect is a butterfly or a moth. Conversely, some butterflies are active at night.
Which moths cause the most economic damage?
The Gypsy Moth (Lymantria dispar) caterpillars feed on broadleaf trees but also garden shrubs. They can cause extensive damage if their numbers are not checked.
Also known as spongy moths, these critters can defoliate 700,000 acres of trees a year in the US.