Lesser broad-bordered yellow underwing
The lesser broad-bordered yellow underwing is a moth with a secret. Its front wings are brown or grey, but its back wings are bright orange yellow with a wide black border. When it sits still, the bright colours are hidden.
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Fun facts
Its front wings can be ochre, grey or brown, often with a reddish or light purple shine.
It looks so much like a close cousin that experts can only tell them apart under a microscope.
It flies once a year, from late June to September.
Some scientists think it and its cousin are really the same kind.
Most asked questions about Lesser broad-bordered yellow underwing
?Why is it called a yellow underwing?
Because its back wings, hidden under the front wings, are bright orange yellow.
?What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat leaves of many trees, bushes and low plants.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Noctua janthe
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Noctuidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Noctuidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa
Where the facts come from
- Noctua janthe (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 Ilia Ustyantsev from Russia. CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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