Porcelain gray
The porcelain gray is a brownish grey moth with curved lines across its wings. Its caterpillar is a looper: it walks by pulling its back end up to its front, making a loop. It lives in forests full of fir and spruce trees.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
How big is Porcelain gray compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
A female lays around 150 eggs on the needles in July.
The caterpillars sleep through the winter and wake up to eat in early spring.
The grown caterpillar is about 2.5 centimetres long with a Y shaped pattern on its back.
In the north there is one generation a year, in the south two.
Most asked questions about Porcelain gray
?What does the porcelain gray caterpillar eat?
Mainly the needles of fir, spruce and tamarack trees.
?Why is it called a looper?
Its caterpillar moves by making a loop with its body as it walks.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Protoboarmia porcelaria
- Named by
- Guenée, 1857
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Geometridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Geometridae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Dash-lined looper
Where the facts come from
- Protoboarmia porcelaria (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 Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren. 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.
Bug Wiki honey jar For grown-ups: Bug Wiki is free, with no ads and no tracking. A small tip helps keep it online.Leave a tip
Atlas moth
Luna moth
Hummingbird hawk-moth
Domestic silk moth
Isabella tiger moth
Polyphemus moth
Black spruce borer
White drummer
April green cicada
Oak petiole gall wasp
Moustached fly
Blotch-winged hoverfly.jpg){kind=link}