Least carpet
The least carpet is a small creamy white moth with fringed wing edges. Across the middle of each front wing runs a dark brown band with a tiny black dot in it. It flies at night and likes to visit lights.
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Fun facts
In Britain its numbers grew more than any other moth between 1968 and 2007.
Its caterpillar is grey brown, with a small black head and a thin pale line on its back.
In warm southern places there can be a second family in a year, and those moths are smaller.
It flies at night in July and August and is drawn to lights.
Most asked questions about Least carpet
?What does the least carpet eat?
Its caterpillars eat ivy, traveller's joy and wilted leaves.
?How big is the least carpet?
Its wings measure only about 2 centimetres from tip to tip.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Idaea rusticata
- Named by
- Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Geometridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Geometridae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Idaea rusticata (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 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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