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Sticker of Little grey
Bug card No. 2638 of 4,939

Little grey

Eudonia lacustrata
Eats: PlantsMothsForests and woods6 legs

The little grey is a tiny whitish moth sprinkled with black, like a pinch of pepper. In the middle of each front wing it has a small black X. Its caterpillars live on moss.

Lives in
Europe, north-west Africa and Asia to Siberia and western China
Wingspan
1.6 to 1.8 cm (0.63 to 0.71 in)
Top speed
about 9.4 km/h (5.8 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat different kinds of moss.
For real!Photo of Little grey
Picture by David Short from Windsor, UK. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Little grey wings about 1.8 cm tip to tip (0.71 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
could fly across a whole football pitch in 40 seconds

How big is Little grey compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its caterpillar is yellowish green with a black brown head.

2

Depending on where it lives, it flies from May to August.

3

Its wings measure only about 16 to 18 millimetres across.

you asked

Most asked questions about Little grey

?What does the little grey eat?

Its caterpillars eat moss.

?How big is the little grey moth?

Very small, its wings are only 16 to 18 millimetres across.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Eudonia lacustrata
Named by
Panzer, 1804
Group
Moths
Family
Crambidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Crambidae
Lives on
Europe, Africa, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Eudonia lacustrata (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by David Short from Windsor, UK. CC BY 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.

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