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Sticker of Dark-spotted palthis moth
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Dark-spotted palthis moth

Palthis angulalis
Eats: PlantsMothsForests and woods6 legs

The dark-spotted palthis is a small brown moth that lives across almost all of North America. Its caterpillars are not picky at all. They eat flowers, bushes and even pine-like trees such as fir and spruce.

Lives in
North America, from Newfoundland to British Columbia and south to Florida and Texas, in woods
Wingspan
2 to 2.6 cm (0.79 to 1 in)
Top speed
about 11 km/h (6.8 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Moths cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat many plants, such as alder, birch, goldenrod, rhododendron, oak, fir and spruce.
For real!Photo of Dark-spotted palthis moth
Picture by Mike Boone. CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Dark-spotted palthis moth wings about 2.6 cm tip to tip (1 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)
wings as wide as 4 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 34 seconds

How big is Dark-spotted palthis moth compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

In the east there are two generations a year, and in the warm south three or more.

2

Its caterpillars eat both soft plants and the needles of trees like fir and spruce.

3

In Alberta, Canada, the moths fly from May to August.

you asked

Most asked questions about Dark-spotted palthis moth

?What does the dark-spotted palthis eat?

Its caterpillars eat many plants, from goldenrod to birch, oak, fir and spruce.

?How big is the dark-spotted palthis?

Its wingspan is about 2 to 2.5 centimetres.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Palthis angulalis
Named by
Hübner, 1796
Group
Moths
Family
Erebidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Erebidae
Lives on
North America
Also known as
Dark-spotted palthis

Where the facts come from

  1. Palthis angulalis (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 Mike Boone. CC BY-SA 2.5, 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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