Feathered thorn
The feathered thorn is a brown night moth that flies late in the year, when the leaves are falling. The male has big, feathery antennae. Its colour can be anything from pale brown to rich reddish brown.
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Fun facts
It flies from September to November, when most other moths are gone.
Males fly actively at night, while females are slow and sluggish.
Its hairless caterpillar looks like a twig and grows up to 5 centimetres long.
It spends the winter as a cluster of eggs on a twig.
One subspecies lives only on the island of Cyprus.
Most asked questions about Feathered thorn
?Why is it called the feathered thorn?
Because the male has very feathery antennae.
?When does the feathered thorn fly?
In autumn, from September to November.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Colotois pennaria
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1761
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Geometridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Geometridae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Feathered thorn (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 Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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