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Sticker of Dark fruit-tree tortrix
Bug card No. 1285 of 4,939

Dark fruit-tree tortrix

Pandemis heparana
Eats: PlantsMothsGardens and meadows6 legs

The dark fruit-tree tortrix is a small moth with yellowish brown to reddish brown front wings. A fine net pattern and darker bands cover them. Its caterpillar makes a cosy home by rolling up a leaf.

Lives in
Most of Europe, Asia and North America, in gardens, orchards and woods
Wingspan
1.6 to 2.4 cm (0.63 to 0.94 in)
Top speed
about 11 km/h (6.8 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its pale green caterpillars eat the leaves of many trees and bushes, such as oak, willow, birch, rowan, apple and pear.
For real!Photo of Dark fruit-tree tortrix
Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Dark fruit-tree tortrix wings about 2.4 cm tip to tip (0.94 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 fruit-tree tortrix compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The caterpillar lives inside a rolled-up leaf, and it also turns into a pupa there.

2

Its caterpillar can grow to about 22 millimetres long.

3

It has two families of young each year, and the moths fly from late May to the middle of September.

4

Gardeners count it as a pest, because its caterpillars chew the leaves of fruit trees.

5

It looks a lot like a close cousin, so it can be hard to tell them apart.

you asked

Most asked questions about Dark fruit-tree tortrix

?How big is the dark fruit-tree tortrix?

Its wings measure about 1.5 to 2.5 centimetres from tip to tip.

?What does the dark fruit-tree tortrix eat?

Its caterpillars eat leaves of many trees and bushes, including apple and pear.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Pandemis heparana
Group
Moths
Family
Tortricidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Tortricidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia, North America
Also known as
Apple brown tortrix

Where the facts come from

  1. Pandemis heparana (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 Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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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