Marbled piercer
Cydia splendana
The marbled piercer is a tiny moth whose caterpillars live inside nuts. They grow up inside acorns and sweet chestnuts. If you find a chestnut with a little hole in it, a caterpillar may have been living there.
Lives in
Europe, wherever oaks and sweet chestnut trees grow
Wingspan
1.2 to 1.6 cm (0.47 to 0.63 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat the inside of acorns and sweet chestnuts, and maybe walnuts too.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 42 seconds
How big is Marbled piercer compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
Marbled piercer about 8.9 km/h (5.5 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its wings are only about 1.2 to 1.6 centimetres from tip to tip.
2
It flies from May to September, depending on where it lives.
3
It is also called the acorn moth, but a different moth in North America has that name too.
you asked
Most asked questions about Marbled piercer
?What does the marbled piercer eat?
Its caterpillars eat the inside of acorns and sweet chestnuts.
?Why do some chestnuts have holes?
Sometimes a marbled piercer caterpillar has been living and eating inside.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Cydia splendana
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Tortricidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Tortricidae
- Lives on
- Europe
- Also known as
- Chestnut tortrix, Acorn moth
Where the facts come from
- Cydia splendana (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 Donald Hobern from Canberra, Australia. CC BY 2.0, 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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