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Sticker of Arched hooktip moth
Bug card No. 0134 of 4,939

Arched hooktip moth

Drepana arcuata
Eats: PlantsMothsForests and woods6 legs

The arched hooktip is a North American moth with hooked tips on its front wings. Its caterpillars are amazing: they talk to each other with sounds. They drum, scrape and shake on leaves to send messages.

Lives in
North America, from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island and south to the Carolinas and California
Wingspan
2.4 to 4 cm (0.94 to 1.6 in)
Top speed
about 14 km/h (8.7 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat the leaves of paper birch and alder.
For real!Photo of Arched hooktip moth
Picture by Zygy. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Arched hooktip moth wings about 4 cm tip to tip (1.6 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
wings as wide as 7 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 27 seconds

How big is Arched hooktip moth compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its caterpillars make sounds by drumming and scraping with their mouths on a leaf.

2

They also drag special paddles at their tail end across the leaf, like rowing oars.

3

The caterpillars build shared silk shelters, and their sounds may call others to join them.

4

The moths fly from the middle of May to the end of July.

you asked

Most asked questions about Arched hooktip moth

?Can caterpillars make sounds?

Yes. Arched hooktip caterpillars drum, scrape and shake on leaves to send messages to each other.

?What does the arched hooktip eat?

Its caterpillars eat paper birch and alder leaves.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Drepana arcuata
Named by
Walker, 1855
Group
Moths
Family
Drepanidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Drepanidae
Lives on
North America
Also known as
Arched hooktip, Masked birch caterpillar

Where the facts come from

  1. Drepana arcuata (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 Zygy. CC0, 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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More from the same group: Moths

Also at home here: Forests and woods

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