Eight-spotted forester
The eight-spotted forester is a black moth with eight pale spots, two on each wing. It flies in the daytime, so people often think it is a butterfly. It likes the edges of woods, where trees meet open fields.
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Fun facts
When a caterpillar is in danger, it throws up a smelly orange juice.
Then it drops off the leaf and hangs on a silk thread from its mouth until it is safe.
Its pupa can wait for up to four years before the moth comes out.
Its caterpillars can eat lots of grape leaves, so grape growers keep an eye on them.
In warm places it can have two families in one year.
Most asked questions about Eight-spotted forester
?Is the eight-spotted forester a butterfly or a moth?
It is a moth, even though it flies in the daytime like a butterfly.
?What does the eight-spotted forester eat?
The moths drink flower nectar, and the caterpillars eat grape and Virginia creeper leaves.
?How big is the eight-spotted forester?
Its wings are about 3 to 3.7 centimetres across.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Alypia octomaculata
- Named by
- Fabricius, 1775
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Noctuidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Noctuidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Alypia octomaculata (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 Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren. CC BY 2.0, 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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