Pale shoulder
Acontia lucida
The pale shoulder is a small moth with a white head and body. Its front wings are greyish white at the front with a wide, dark brown, marbled band. It flies on sunny days over dry meadows.
Lives in
Most of Europe, east to Turkey, Iran and India, and Algeria, in dry meadows and grassland
Wingspan
2.6 to 3 cm (1 to 1.2 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat many soft plants, mostly mallow, marshmallow, bindweed, goosefoot and dandelion.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🍚wings as wide as 5 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 32 seconds
How big is Pale shoulder 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)
Pale shoulder about 12 km/h (7.5 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
It flies in sunshine, but at night it also comes to lights.
2
There are two families each year, flying in May and in August.
3
It spends the winter as a pupa below the ground.
4
Its caterpillars are green or brown with whitish bands.
you asked
Most asked questions about Pale shoulder
?What does the pale shoulder caterpillar eat?
Mallow, marshmallow, bindweed, goosefoot and dandelion.
?Where does the pale shoulder live?
In grasslands, dry meadows, dunes and roadsides from Europe to India.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Acontia lucida
- Named by
- Hufnagel, 1766
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Noctuidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Noctuidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa
Where the facts come from
- Acontia lucida (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.
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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