Small china-mark
Cataclysta lemnata
The small china-mark is a little white moth that lives near ponds. Its caterpillars are half water creatures. They live among floating duckweed and munch on it.
Lives in
Europe, Morocco and Iran, by ponds and ditches
Wingspan
1.8 to 2.4 cm (0.71 to 0.94 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat duckweed and tiny water ferns that float on ponds.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🍚wings as wide as 4 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 34 seconds
How big is Small china-mark 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)
Small china-mark about 11 km/h (6.8 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
The females are bigger than the males.
2
Its back wings are white with a black band holding four tiny bluish silver dots.
3
The caterpillar builds itself a cosy shelter out of plant bits before it turns into a moth.
4
It flies from May to August, depending on where it lives.
you asked
Most asked questions about Small china-mark
?What does the small china-mark caterpillar eat?
Duckweed and little water ferns that float on ponds.
?How big is the small china-mark?
Its wings measure 18 to 24 millimetres, and the females are the bigger ones.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Cataclysta lemnata
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Crambidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Crambidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Cataclysta lemnata (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 Ilia Ustyantsev from Russia. CC BY-SA 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
Rambur's forktail
Blue basker
Waterlily leaf beetle
Aurora bluetail
Common baskettail
Red arrow.jpg){kind=link}