Silver-ground carpet
Xanthorhoe montanata
The silver-ground carpet is a white moth with a wide band across its front wings. The band can be pale grey or almost black. It is very common and lives in many places, from wet forests to gardens.
Lives in
From Ireland across Europe and Asia to the Russian Far East, plus North Africa and the Near East
Wingspan
2.9 to 3.3 cm (1.1 to 1.3 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Like other moth caterpillars, its caterpillar eats plants.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🍚wings as wide as 6 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 29 seconds
How big is Silver-ground carpet 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)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Silver-ground carpet 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 back wings are white too, with a tiny black dot in the middle.
2
It looks a bit different from place to place. In the far north it is often smaller and paler.
3
It lives in moors, meadows, forests, on shores and in gardens.
you asked
Most asked questions about Silver-ground carpet
?What does the silver-ground carpet look like?
It is white with a wide grey to black band across the front wings.
?Where does the silver-ground carpet live?
Across Europe and Asia in many habitats, including gardens.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Xanthorhoe montanata
- Named by
- Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Geometridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Geometridae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa
Where the facts come from
- Silver-ground carpet (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 No machine-readable author provided. Svdmolen assumed (based on copyright claims).. CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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