Spring cankerworm moth
The spring cankerworm moth comes out at the very end of winter and in spring. Only the males have wings. The females have no wings at all, so they climb up tree trunks on foot to lay their eggs.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
People wrap sticky bands around tree trunks to catch the wingless females as they climb up.
Its caterpillars are about 2.5 centimetres long, and lots of them together can eat all the leaves off a tree.
If the wind blows a caterpillar off a leaf, it hangs on a silk thread and climbs back up.
The males fly from February to late May.
Most asked questions about Spring cankerworm moth
?Why do caterpillars hang from trees on threads?
Spring cankerworms hang on silk threads when they fall, so they can climb back up to their leaves.
?Can the female spring cankerworm moth fly?
No. The females have no wings and must climb the tree.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Paleacrita vernata
- Named by
- Peck, 1795
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Geometridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Geometridae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Spring cankerworm
Where the facts come from
- Paleacrita vernata (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 NCBioTeacher. CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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