Oak eggar
The oak eggar is a big, furry brown moth. It is the largest moth in Britain that flies in the daytime. Funny thing: it is named after the oak, but its caterpillar does not eat oak leaves.
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Fun facts
Males fly in the daytime and females mostly fly from dusk.
Its cocoon is hard and yellowish and looks like an acorn.
In cold northern places, a caterpillar can take two whole years to become a moth.
The mother does not glue her eggs to a leaf. She just drops them loosely into the plants below.
Most asked questions about Oak eggar
?Why is it called the oak eggar?
Because its cocoon looks like an acorn from an oak tree.
?Is the oak eggar caterpillar poisonous?
There is no evidence that its hairs irritate the skin, unlike some other hairy caterpillars.
?How big is the oak eggar?
Its wings measure about 4.5 to 7.5 centimetres across.
Myth buster
Myth: The oak eggar caterpillar eats oak leaves.
Truth: No. Its name comes from its acorn shaped cocoon. The caterpillar eats heather, bilberry, bramble and many other plants.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Lasiocampa quercus
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Lasiocampidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Lasiocampidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
- Also known as
- Northern eggar
Where the facts come from
- Oak eggar (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 Didier Descouens. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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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