Red-headed inchworm moth
Macaria bisignata
The red-headed inchworm moth is a small moth with a reddish brown head. Its wings are pale tan to grey-brown, with a few dark brown marks along the front edge. Its caterpillar is an inchworm that lives on pine trees.
Lives in
North America, from Newfoundland to Georgia and west to Arizona
Wingspan
2.5 cm (0.98 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The caterpillar eats almost only pine needles, for example from the eastern white pine.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🍚wings as wide as 4 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 34 seconds
How big is Red-headed inchworm moth compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
Red-headed inchworm moth about 11 km/h (6.8 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
You can tell it apart from a look-alike moth by the 3 or 4 dark brown marks on the front edge of each wing.
2
It flies from May to August, depending on where it lives.
3
Inchworms walk by making a loop with their body, as if they were measuring the ground.
you asked
Most asked questions about Red-headed inchworm moth
?What does the red-headed inchworm eat?
Its caterpillar eats pine needles.
?Is the red-headed inchworm moth harmful?
No. It is a small, harmless moth.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Macaria bisignata
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Geometridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Geometridae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Redheaded inchworm
Where the facts come from
- Macaria bisignata (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 NCBioTeacher. CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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