Sweetfern geometer moth
Cyclophora pendulinaria
The sweetfern geometer moth is a small pearly grey moth from North America. It lives in damp forests. Its caterpillar is an inchworm that moves by making a loop with its body.
Lives in
North America, from Newfoundland to the Yukon and south to Georgia, in damp forests
Wingspan
1.7 to 2.6 cm (0.67 to 1 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat the leaves of sweetfern and alder bushes.
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 Sweetfern geometer moth 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)
Sweetfern geometer moth 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
It lives across a huge area, from Newfoundland and Labrador in the east to the Yukon in the far north west.
2
You can see it flying from April all the way to October.
3
Its caterpillars eat sweetfern, which gave the moth its name, and alder leaves.
you asked
Most asked questions about Sweetfern geometer moth
?What does the sweetfern geometer moth eat?
Its caterpillars eat sweetfern and alder leaves.
?How big is the sweetfern geometer moth?
Its open wings measure about 17 to 26 millimetres across.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Cyclophora pendulinaria
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Geometridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Geometridae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Pearly-grey wave
Where the facts come from
- Cyclophora pendulinaria (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 Unspecified, University of British Columbia. CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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