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Sticker of Bronze alder moth
Bug card No. 0646 of 4,939

Bronze alder moth

Argyresthia goedartella
Eats: Nectar and pollenMothsForests and woods6 legs

The bronze alder moth is a tiny moth with white wings and shiny copper-gold markings. In the middle of its wings you can see a gold mark shaped like the letter Y. It is very common in Europe and also lives in North America.

Lives in
Most of Europe and North America, near birch and alder trees
Wingspan
1 to 1.3 cm (0.39 to 0.51 in)
Top speed
about 8 km/h (5 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It is a tiny moth that cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The moth mostly drinks nectar from tansy flowers. Its caterpillars eat birch and alder trees.
For real!Photo of Bronze alder moth
Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Bronze alder moth wings about 1.3 cm tip to tip (0.51 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
could fly across a whole football pitch in 47 seconds

How big is Bronze alder moth compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its wings are only 10 to 13 millimetres from tip to tip, about as wide as your fingernail.

2

It flies at night, but you can also see it on sunny afternoons.

3

The caterpillars spend the winter hidden inside a shoot or a hard catkin of their tree.

4

In spring the caterpillars gather together and turn into pupae in cocoons under the bark.

5

There is only one family of young each year, and the moths fly from May to October.

you asked

Most asked questions about Bronze alder moth

?What does the bronze alder moth eat?

The moth drinks nectar from tansy flowers. The caterpillars eat birch and alder.

?How big is the bronze alder moth?

Tiny. Its wings are 10 to 13 millimetres across.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Argyresthia goedartella
Group
Moths
Family
Argyresthiidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Argyresthiidae
Lives on
Europe, North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Argyresthia goedartella (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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Also at home here: Forests and woods

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