Black-and-yellow lichen moth
Lycomorpha pholus
The black-and-yellow lichen moth is a small moth dressed in black and yellow. It lives on the open grassy prairies of North America. Its caterpillar has a very clever trick for hiding.
Lives in
North America, from Nova Scotia to North Carolina and west to South Dakota and Texas
Wingspan
2.5 to 3.2 cm (0.98 to 1.3 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat lichen, the crusty grey and green stuff that grows on rocks and tree bark.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🍚wings as wide as 5 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 29 seconds
How big is Black-and-yellow lichen 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)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Black-and-yellow lichen moth 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 caterpillars look just like the lichen they eat, so they are very hard to spot.
2
It lives on short-grass prairie, wide open land covered in low grass.
3
There are two kinds of it, and one of them lives in the middle of North America.
you asked
Most asked questions about Black-and-yellow lichen moth
?What does the black-and-yellow lichen moth eat?
Its caterpillars eat lichen growing on rocks and bark.
?Is the black-and-yellow lichen moth dangerous?
No. It is a small moth that cannot bite or sting.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Lycomorpha pholus
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Erebidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Erebidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Lycomorpha pholus (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 Cyndy Sims Parr. CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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