Bug Wiki
Bug Wiki / All bugs / Moths
Sticker of Pale beauty
Bug card No. 3221 of 4,939

Pale beauty

Campaea perlata
Name means: “pearly (the Latin word perlata)”
Eats: PlantsMothsForests and woods6 legs

The pale beauty is a soft, pale green to white moth with faint lines across its wings. Its caterpillar is an inchworm that looks just like a little twig, so birds walk right past it.

Lives in
Most of North America, from Alaska and the Yukon to Arizona, in woods and parks
Wingspan
2.8 to 5.1 cm (1.1 to 2 in)
Top speed
about 16 km/h (9.9 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The caterpillar eats leaves and needles of at least 65 kinds of trees and shrubs, like birch, maple, oak, pine and willow.
For real!Photo of Pale beauty
Picture by CBG Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Pale beauty wings about 5.1 cm tip to tip (2 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
wings as wide as 1.5 toy building brickscould fly across a whole football pitch in 24 seconds

How big is Pale beauty compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

A fringe of hairs along the caterpillar's sides hides its shadow, so it blends into a branch even better.

2

The caterpillar has a kind of antifreeze in its body, so it can spend the winter outside on a tree without freezing.

3

The moth likes to rest on light backgrounds where it is well hidden.

4

When the caterpillar is fully grown, it makes a light green cocoon.

5

Females are much bigger than males.

you asked

Most asked questions about Pale beauty

?What does the pale beauty caterpillar look like?

It is grey to reddish, about 4 centimetres long, and looks just like a twig.

?How does the pale beauty caterpillar survive winter?

It has antifreeze in its body and rests on tree branches without freezing.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Campaea perlata
Group
Moths
Family
Geometridae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Geometridae
Lives on
North America
Also known as
Fringed looper, Light emerald

Where the facts come from

  1. Campaea perlata (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by CBG Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics. CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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.

Bug Wiki honey jar For grown-ups: Bug Wiki is free, with no ads and no tracking. A small tip helps keep it online.Leave a tip

More from the same group: Moths

Atlas mothMothsLuna mothMothsHummingbird hawk-mothMothsDomestic silk mothMothsIsabella tiger mothMothsPolyphemus mothMoths

Also at home here: Forests and woods

Western wood cockroachCockroaches and termitesWhite-legged snake millipedeCentipedes and millipedesWool sower gall waspWasps and hornetsSplayed deerflyFlies and mosquitoesSirex woodwaspWasps and hornetsGrey huntsman spiderSpiders
Honey jarfor grown-ups