Cape lappet
The Cape lappet is a big, chunky brown moth from South Africa. Its caterpillars are much fancier than the moth: they are very hairy, with orange tufts along the sides and copper and purple tufts on the head. The caterpillars like to stay together in groups.
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Fun facts
The grown-up moth cannot eat, so it lives only off the food it stored as a caterpillar.
Females are usually paler and bigger than males.
Its front wings are reddish brown with yellow flecks and three wavy white stripes.
Nobody knows for sure why the caterpillars clump together in groups.
The caterpillars eat a lot of different plants, from acacias and pines to mango and peach trees.
Most asked questions about Cape lappet
?Is the Cape lappet caterpillar dangerous?
The moth is gentle. The caterpillars are very hairy, so it is best to look and not touch.
?What does the Cape lappet eat?
The caterpillars eat leaves of many trees and bushes. The grown-up moth does not eat anything.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Eutricha capensis
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1767
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Lasiocampidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Lasiocampidae
- Lives on
- Africa
- Also known as
- Cape lappet moth
Where the facts come from
- Eutricha capensis (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 Tony Rebelo. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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.
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